CAIRO: Hamas group sources and Palestinian officials report that armed and disguised personnel from various tribes and groups have begun to guard relief convoys in Gaza.
A truck convoy carrying international supplies entered Gaza City overnight, as captured on video that Reuters was able to get. The convoy was observed by a number of men who were carrying AK-47 assault guns and others who were holding sticks.
Since Hamas’s devastating raid on Israel on October 7, Israeli forces have vowed to destroy the organization, making it extremely dangerous for anyone associated with it to come out in public to provide protection for the delivery of aid to needy civilians.
According to Palestinian officials and Hamas sources, a multitude of clans, civil society organizations, and factions, including Fatah, have intervened to help ensure security for the aid convoys.
It becomes more difficult to ensure the safe delivery of resources when public order is disrupted.
The clans and factions were not named, but they said that Hamas’s ability to unite these groups over security issues demonstrated its continued power and that Israel’s attempts to establish an independent administrative structure to maintain order in Gaza were being opposed.
A Palestinian official who wished to remain anonymous said, “Israel’s plan to find some clans to collaborate with its pilot projects of finding an alternative to Hamas didn’t succeed but it also showed that Palestinian resistance factions are the only ones who can run the show, in one way or another.”
A spokesman for the Israeli military declined to comment, stating that it was inappropriate to discuss particular guidelines for interaction in a conflict area in public.
According to Gaza health experts, Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 30,000 Palestinians and left most of the territory in ruins.
Since taking control Gaza in 2007, Hamas has grown in prominence through the social services, educational initiatives, and charitable giving it provides to the region’s poor residents.
The distribution of commodities safely has grown more difficult to guarantee as public order becomes stressed and civil police worry about being targeted by the Israeli military and hence cannot provide the necessary security.
The UN refugee agency UNRWA’s Juliette Touma said she was unaware of any masked men guarding convoys.
The UN isn’t dealing with clans, according to Jamie McGoldrick, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory. “We have been attempting to restore the Blue Police’s (Palestinian civil police) trajectory. Israel has targeted the blue police on several occasions because they believe they are a part of the Hamas infrastructure, he claimed.
Therefore, we are attempting to determine the most effective means of delivering aid to the northern and other regions of the Gaza Strip. That combines the use of neighborhood associations, etc. and in situations where we can also covertly employ the cops.”
Large, traditional family clans in Gaza are connected to political groups like Hamas and Fatah, which control the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank that is under Israeli occupation.
Certain clan chiefs have stated that they are unable to replace local government or UN humanitarian organizations aiding Palestinian refugees.
