From the article: ... Also see: Ceasefire brings flood of aid to Gaza, but security challenges remain ...
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For the first time in a year, the militant group’s armed wing openly paraded through the streets and held public funerals for slain fighters. On war-battered streets crowded with mule carts and displaced civilians returning to what remained of their homes, Hamas-affiliated police officers in blue uniforms barked orders and directed traffic. On social media, Hamas accounts that had gone dark reactivated overnight. One account touted photos of a militant commander whom Israel claimed to have killed walking around in public, seemingly unscathed.
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It’s unclear, without reliable polling or elections, the extent of Hamas’s support inside Gaza. Most Palestinian and Israeli analysts say resentment toward the movement has increased since its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, provoked a devastating response from the Israeli military, but Hamas will always retain a level of popularity because a key component of its ideology is armed struggle against Israeli occupation.
To be sure, Israel has crippled Hamas, at least militarily. Despite the group’s efforts to project strength this week, Israeli officials believe all but two of its 24 battalions, or roughly 90 percent of its fighting forces, have been wiped out, and many of its tunnel networks and arms factories have been destroyed, current and former Israeli officials say.
More than 3,800 trucks carrying fuel and humanitarian relief have entered Gaza since the ceasefire took effect on Sunday, according to the United Nations, a massive increase compared with the volume of aid going in each day during the war.
But the violence — which erupted near the Kerem Shalom crossing late Wednesday and continued Thursday — suggests the security around aid distribution within Gaza remains uncertain, even as U.N. and other aid workers reported near-unhindered access as they scale up assistance to more than 2 million people.
Before the ceasefire, gangs of looters in southern Gaza were stealing much of the aid that entered the territory, hijacking trucks, and killing, beating and kidnapping Palestinian drivers. They were emboldened by the security vacuum that opened when Gaza’s civilian police force, targeted by Israel, stopped escorting the convoys.
But as the truce took hold in recent days, police reemerged and began guarding the trucks — protection aid agencies have said it is necessary to allow the relief to flow more smoothly.
Late Wednesday, armed men targeted the police officers protecting an aid convoy, said Adham Shuhaibar, a prominent trader licensed by Israel to bring goods and humanitarian supplies into Gaza. Ten of his trucks were damaged in the shootout, which caused at least a brief suspension of aid deliveries through Kerem Shalom, he said.
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Accounts from truck drivers who have been to border points both during the war and since the ceasefire started suggest that inspections have been significantly scaled back.
Ibrahim Mohamed Ibrahim, 32, transported goods from Egypt to Gaza and said that it could previously take up to four hours just to get his vehicle into the crossing at Kerem Shalom — and then longer to have the goods scanned and unloaded.
“Today, it took exactly one hour,” Ibrahim said Sunday.
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Ceasefire brings flood of aid to Gaza, but security challenges remain
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