Thousands of Hamas fighters have re-entered northern Gaza and are building up their military capability to fight Israel again, security officials have said.
The terror group has reportedly taken advantage of the ceasefire to re-enter their former stronghold of Gaza City under the cover of civilians returning home.
Unnamed military officials have told news outlets in Israel that Hamas is once again taxing the local population – including a levy on humanitarian aid – to pay their fighters.
They are also planting bombs and installing surveillance cameras in preparation for a renewed IDF offensive if the ceasefire does not hold.
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It comes as a senior Hamas official said he would not have supported the Oct 7 massacre if he had foreseen the devastation that it would cause Gaza in response.
Mousa Abu Marzouk, the head of the terror group’s foreign relations bureau, also suggested that Hamas might be willing to negotiate over the future of its weapons in the enclave.
Phase one of the deal finishes at the end of this week.
However, hopes are not high in Israel for the success of phase two, which envisages a complete withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza and the return of all the hostages, not least because agreeing a long-term settlement for the strip could collapse Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
The two sides are entangled in a bout of mutual recrimination after Israel delayed the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday in retaliation to Hamas’s mistreatment of the bodies that it returned on Thursday.
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The government has said it will release the prisoners if the remaining hostage bodies from phase one are released privately and without a Hamas “ceremony”.
Increased state of alert
The IDF has increased its state of alert around the Gaza Strip and has reinforced its numbers there in recent weeks.
Israel has consistently threatened to return to all-out war if the hostage deal breaks down.
There are thought to be between 20 and 30 living hostages still in captivity, while Hamas also has control of dozens of bodies of dead hostages.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians returned to the northern part of Gaza in January after Israeli troops withdrew from the Netzarim corridor, which bifurcated the strip.
However, owing to the unlivable state of the area, many returned to refugee camps in Khan Younis.
An IDF official told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper: “Every day of ceasefire helps Hamas mobilise operatives and commanders and to pass on orders.
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“It suffers from shortages in combat equipment, personnel and command and control capabilities as a result of the IDF’s operation and in the absence of new resources.
“But this past month has proven that more work lies ahead until Hamas is defeated.”
It is thought that Hamas has used the period of peace to appoint new platoon, company and battalion commanders, although the strength of these formations is thought to remain significantly below what it was at the start of the war, thanks to the Israeli offensive.
Drone strikes
Israel has launched the occasional drone strike on vehicles heading north on an unpermitted road to police the flow of material back into the Hamas heartland.
At least three rockets have been fired by terrorists in the past week, according to the IDF.
In an interview with the New York Times, Abu Marzouk said he had not been informed of the plans for Oct 7 before it took place, reinforcing suspicions that the atrocity was the decision of the Gaza-based leadership, rather than the terror group’s high command.
He said: “If it was expected that what happened would happen, there wouldn’t have been Oct 7.”
Hamas later issued a statement saying Abu Marzouk’s comments were “incorrect” and “taken out of context”.
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