Israel’s defense establishment believes that Hamas is increasingly motivated to rebuild and recover from the heavy losses inflicted upon it throughout the last two years of war, encouraged in part by US President Donald Trump’s plan for the Gaza Strip, Hebrew language media reported Sunday, citing unnamed security sources. At the same time as it rebuilds, the Palestinian terror group will be looking to attack Israel Defense Forces soldiers on the Israeli-controlled side of the Yellow Line, the reports said. The assessment, reportedly delivered in closed-door briefings to Israel’s political echelon, came days after the Trump administration announced the start of phase two of its plan for ending the Gaza war, which envisions the establishment of a series of panels tasked with governing the Strip in place of Hamas.
Rather than seeing Washington’s plans as a threat to its future, Hamas has “welcomed” them, the security sources said, as the terror group is hoping to model Gaza after Lebanon, where the Hezbollah terror group wields significant power, and the government is weak and unable to bring it in line. A November 2024 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon mandated that Hezbollah be disarmed, but the Iran-backed group has insisted that it will not agree to do so, and Israel has accused it of attempting to rebuild in southern Lebanon.
The current assessment in Israel is that Hamas, like Hezbollah, will continue to stall for time and delay giving up its weapons, and that, although disarmament is a key term of the US-brokered ceasefire, the delay will not prevent the reconstruction of the war-torn Gaza Strip from moving ahead. Hamas, according to officials quoted by Channel 12, “will do everything it can to drag out the process and exhaust all parties, while reconstruction on the ground begins in practice.” (Read More)
