Quelle Surprise: Hamas Refuses Disarmament, Re-Occupies Gaza City Hospital

Good luck with that position. Both literal and figurative. 

In the wake of losing its leverage, Hamas has decided to embrace denial. Earlier this afternoon, the Wall Street Journal reported that the terror network has re-occupied a Gaza City hospital as its command center. They plan to use it in their new internecine warfare to keep their grip on Gaza, now that clans and rival “gangs” have challenged them in the streets after they capitulated to Donald Trump and Israel:

Heavily armed Hamas fighters seized the Jordanian Field Hospital complex in Gaza City last weekend after a gunbattle with a rival Palestinian group, re-establishing their control over what residents and Israel’s military said had long been a redoubt for the Islamist militants.

Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, ordered other Palestinians out of the hospital at gunpoint and took over the facility and surrounding neighborhood, said Mohammad Doghmosh, whose family is a powerful force in that part of the Palestinian enclave. “They took full control there,” he said. “They’ve brought their forces back in an extreme way.”

Members of the Doghmosh clan and Israel’s military said Hamas had turned a building on the hospital grounds into a base of operations and used a tunnel running adjacent to the medical center, which began operations in 2009.

As Israeli troops moved to occupy the area around the hospital, Hamas fighters fled. But once Israeli forces withdrew as part of a cease-fire deal that came into effect on Saturday, they flooded back in, Doghmosh said.

In other words, Hamas is still playing by the old rules. They got forced to cough up their leverage only after realizing that Trump would not stop the IDF from total conquest, and that our flabby European allies weren’t going to convince him otherwise. The ‘recognition’ of a Palestinian state by France and the UK had no effect at all on the US or Israel. The Qataris and the Turks finally convinced them that the game has changed that much, anyway.

Taking over a hospital, however, makes it clear that they thought the old rules still mainly applied. The IDF has not hesitated to strike Hamas command-and-control centers in this war, which is what prompted Hamas to flee this position a few weeks ago. They are now banking on the idea that a ceasefire will keep the Israelis from attacking their re-occupied position, even if hostilities start again, but that’s a pretty risky bet.

It got even riskier today, when one Hamas politburo member publicly declared that they would not disarm. Instead, they are now demanding a five-year breather and control of reconstruction aid coming into Gaza:

Hamas intends to maintain security control in Gaza during an interim period, a senior Hamas official told Reuters, adding he could not commit to the group disarming – positions that reflect the difficulties facing US plans to secure an end to the war.

Hamas politburo member Mohammed Nazzal also said the group was ready for a ceasefire of up to five years to rebuild devastated Gaza, with guarantees for what happens afterwards depending on Palestinians being given “horizons and hope” for statehood.

Speaking to Reuters in an interview from Doha, where Hamas politicians have long resided, Nazzal defended the group’s crackdown in Gaza, where it carried out public executions on Monday. There were always “exceptional measures” during war, and those executed were criminals guilty of killing, he said.

This is yet another version of the Hamas Hokey Pokey. In ceasefires past, Hamas would agree to conditions initially and then flagrantly violate them, demanding renegotiation of terms — and usually getting them. Previous American administrations would lean on Israel in order to preserve the illusion of peace, which in reality just extended a frozen conflict in ways that allowed Hamas to rebuild. Nazzal apparently thinks that Trump will make the same choice, in order to protect his “achievement” for peace in the Middle East — while ignoring that peace hasn’t arrived at all. 

Trump tried to warn Hamas yesterday about his actual priorities:

Trump later clarified that “we” didn’t mean US troops, but definitely included US support for military action by the IDF. Trump had already warned that any compliance failure by Hamas would mean full war again:

Soon after, he clarified that he did not mean the United States would enter Gaza. “Somebody will go in … It’s not going to be us,” he told reporters, adding, “There are people very nearby that will go in, they’ll do the trick very easily, but under our auspices.”

Trump has previously said he would endorse Israeli operations in Gaza when Hamas did not meet his demands.

Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly declared that any failure to comply with the plan would restart hostilities. At the moment, Netanyahu has expressed frustration with Hamas’ slow-walking of returning the bodies of dead hostages, their lower-level Hokey Pokey move to push for renegotiation, but the IDF will not budge an inch until Phase 2 talks get underway after the fulfillment of Phase 1 by Hamas. Trump has backed Netanyahu on that point, although he has also tried to get the issue resolved through the Turks and Qatar.

However, if Hamas insists that it will not disarm and has begun re-establishing terror command centers in hospitals, Trump has little reason left to restrain the Israelis. The hostages are already back, plus Hamas is already continuing a war in the streets of Gaza City regardless of the IDF’s presence. Trump’s end goal is to eject Hamas and bring in a government for Gaza that will work with Israel and guarantee its security. If Hamas won’t cooperate, Trump won’t see that as a failure of his peace plan, but merely a contingency that he already has the plans and resources to address. 

We’ll see whether Hamas plays its old game, or realize that Trump is playing an entirely different game, for keeps. 

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