During Hamas’s decade and a half controlling Gaza, the terrorist group acted to turn every aspect of the Strip into a lever of its terror state.
That meant tunneling under universities and hospitals and moving weapons into civilian homes. It also meant creating a police force that served the interests of Hamas.
Today that police force is in the spotlight because many international organizations that worked in Gaza or deal with humanitarian aid see the Hamas police as “law and order,” rather than an extension of a terrorist group that brought war and ruin on the embattled coastal enclave.
The Hamas police story is central to the current issues affecting Gaza. For instance, there are many reports of a humanitarian crisis in the Strip. Hamas and many organizations that have worked with it over the last decades have often claimed there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza in order to win concessions for Hamas so the terror group can continue to rule there.
Hamas believes the suffering of Gazans is in its interests, and it profits from their suffering. However, there is also a very real concern about how the current situation in Gaza could worsen in terms of the humanitarian crisis. Hamas may want the situation to worsen and may be using gunmen or its “police” to make it harder for Gazans to access aid.
This creates a Catch-22 in Gaza. The absence of Hamas police is often said to lead to chaos and looting of humanitarian aid. Therefore, the presence of the Hamas members is portrayed as “law and order.” Any defeat of Hamas is therefore characterized as ending “law and order.”
We can see how this narrative functions through a recent report at Reuters claiming that “masked men in Gaza enforce prices.” The men claim they are merely enforcing law and order. However, usually “law and order” doesn’t need to be enforced by men with masks, sticks and guns.
Relationship between Hamas and law and order
In Gaza, however, there has been a symbiotic relationship between Hamas armed men and the delivery of humanitarian aid. What this means is that the presence of Hamas gunmen is seen as a positive thing by some of the stakeholders in Gaza.
The absence of an alternative to the Hamas gunmen creates this perception of the terrorist group as “law and order.” This is a strange type of law and order because the same terrorist group places weapons in civilian homes; the same group poses as civilians, bringing harm to innocent people, and the same group brought war on Gaza by attacking Israel on October 7. However, those who perceive Hamas as “law and order” appear to systematically ignore the fact that firing thousands of rockets from civilian areas is not usually how “law and order” thrives.
An article at The Guardian in January is symbolic of the way Hamas has inserted itself into the perception that it is a force for good in Gaza via its “law and order.” The article notes “One senior humanitarian official told The Guardian: ‘The technocrats continue to be about but the QB [Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing] you don’t see. You still see Hamas police in different areas who have a grip to some extent on law and order in some places including in the north.’”
In essence Hamas is seen by some or many NGOs and others as a force of “law and order.” As such, any absence of Hamas, meaning any time Gazans are allowed to be free of a terrorist group having armed masked men, is seen as a collapse of “law and order.”
Hamas has lost control of many areas of Gaza. This now leads to a question about what kind of authorities might replace it. However, so long as Hamas can portray itself as the only group that brings “law and order” it will be the preferred partner of various international groups, and even countries, that provide humanitarian aid.
This is a Catch-22 and Hamas has exploited it to the hilt. Hamas first takes over Gaza illegally in 2007, then it builds terror infrastructure under every school and hospital and most civilian homes, and then it claims it is bringing law and order – while it is the one that uses Gaza as a launch pad to carry out attacks and brings war on the Strip. It then exploits the suffering and chaos caused by the war to pose as the only group that should be trusted to control Gaza, and then begins the cycle again.
The challenge for Israel and other countries that care about a Gaza that is free of Hamas, is finding some partner that can help deliver aid in a responsible way. According to the Israel Defense Forces, “early this morning, during the entry of humanitarian aid trucks into the northern Gaza Strip, Gazan residents surrounded the trucks, and looted the supplies being delivered. During the incident, dozens of Gazans were injured as a result of pushing and trampling.”
This is obviously a tragedy and Hamas will use it to argue that only its masked thuggish mafia-like gunmen who pose as police can bring “law and order.” The world is now stuck in this Catch-22, which is a trap placed by Hamas.
Hamas wanted to destroy Gaza and exploit civilian suffering to create the chaos that would cause some countries and organizations to prefer the return of the genocidal terrorist group. Then Hamas will use the billions in aid for Gaza to rebuild its tunnels while it pretends to be rebuilding homes.
Breaking the Hamas cycle of collapsing law and order in order to build terror infrastructure is essential to Gaza’s future.