By Taghreed Saadeh
Today, Hamas is attempting to reassert its presence on the ground in the Gaza Strip after two years of a war that destroyed everything. Its members are reappearing in the streets armed, masked, and carrying green insignias under the slogan of “maintaining security.” Yet, in reality, the movement is striving to reproduce its old rule, relying once again on force, the same method by which it governed the Strip for the past 18 years.
The movement has announced campaigns to pursue those it calls “collaborators with the occupation.” However, through these campaigns, Hamas is effectively granting itself free rein to eliminate anyone who opposes or dares to criticize it, justifying repression under the pretext of resistance, and using “security” as a cover to silence voices of dissent.
At the same time, Hamas’s recent negotiations in Sharm El-Sheikh reveal its true weakness on the international stage. It has offered concessions merely to preserve its own survival. The movement did not enter the talks from a position of strength, but rather under direct pressure and threats from President Trump, after conditions were forcibly imposed upon it. Once it accepted those terms, Hamas quickly returned to raising slogans of victory and sovereignty trying to convince the public that it remains the legitimate ruler of Gaza.
However, this renewed presence on the ground carries dangerous implications, including the potential for internal explosion, possibly even civil conflict. The movement is trying to entrench its rule through an iron grip on security after exhausting the Strip with a war that brought neither protection, nor food, nor shelter only devastation and suffering to the Palestinian people in Gaza.
For two long years of destruction and hardship, the people of Gaza were left to their fate with no safety, no food, no medicine, while Hamas loyalists hid in tunnels, protected and well-supplied. They distributed envelopes of cash among followers, while ordinary citizens starved and thirsted in the open.
Under the banner of “resistance,” Hamas turned its might against its own people instead of confronting the occupation. The war it claimed to have fought for the liberation of Palestine was, in truth, staged and limited. The movement carried out a few military operations, using them as media cover to create the illusion of combat, while in reality, it was the people who bore the full cost of the war.
In the streets, people whisper about war profiteers and money brokers who grew rich in the name of resistance, about corruption and black-market trade in humanitarian aid all under the protection of Hamas security forces who claim to be preserving order. Amid this chaos, Hamas has entrenched itself as an unaccountable authority, restoring Gaza to an age of fear and silence.
What Hamas is doing today is not the restoration of order, it is the restoration of domination. The movement rules Gaza with iron and fire, exploiting the suffering of its people to justify its power. After impoverishing them in the name of steadfastness and destroying them in the name of victory, Hamas now returns to declare defiantly, “I am the only ruler.”
The war has laid bare the painful truth, the Palestinian people were abandoned to hunger and ruin, while Hamas focused on securing its own power. What is happening today in Gaza’s streets is not a triumph over the occupation, it is the tightening of control over the ruins of a devastated homeland, ruled by an authority that raises the banner of resistance even as it betrays its meaning.
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