The Rise of Gaza's New Warlords

Early this month, a mass formally rejected the disarmament framework that was supposed to move the Gaza ceasefire into its second phase. No one who follows the group was especially shocked by this. Voluntary disarmament was never realistic and everyone involved and more or less knew it.

But the rejection is overshadowed a harder question. Whether a mass can actually hold the territory that it's refusing to give up. Because the group is being squeezed from most every direction at once, facing challenges to its authority that would have been unthinkable at any point since it took over the strip in 2007.

And not just by Israel. Within the broader Palestinian movement, there are groups threatening to move in on Hamas's home turf. On October 10, 2025, a ceasefire took effect across the Gaza Strip, ending two years of war following the attacks on October 7, 2023.