Hamas Enforcement of Truce Complicated by Gaza’s Militant Rivalries
Hamas Enforcement of Truce Complicated by Gaza’s Militant Rivalries
The Palestinian militant group Hamas pledged to uphold a new cease-fire with Israel on Wednesday, but its enforcement of that truce may be complicated by other armed factions that have increasingly challenged Hamas’s authority in Gaza in recent years.
After fighting a three-week war with Israel from December 2008 to January 2009, Hamas agreed to an informal truce, ordering its fighters to refrain from rocket strikes on Israelis while cracking down on smaller groups who fired their own missiles across the border.
But that arrangement appeared to break down last month as Hamas militants increasingly joined those factions in launching rockets at Israel in response to what they said were acts of Israeli aggression.
Hamas had been under pressure from the other militants to prove its commitment to armed struggle against the Jewish state, whose existence they all reject.