by Connor Echols at Responsible Statecraft
It’s an old strategy: Israel’s hardliners benefit from sowing internal violence, chaos and Palestinian division
Frightening images have emerged from Gaza in the week since a fragile ceasefire took hold between Israel and Hamas. In one widely circulated video, seven blindfolded men kneel in line with militants arrayed behind them. Gunshots ring out in unison, and the row of men collapse in a heap as dozens of spectators look on.
The gruesome scenes appear to be part of a Hamas effort to reestablish control over Gaza through a crackdown on gangs and criminal groups that it says have proliferated during the past two years of war and chaos. In the minds of Israel and its backers, the killings reveal Hamas’ true colors — and represent a preview of what the group may do if it’s allowed to maintain some degree of power.
Indeed, some are already arguing that these attacks should spark a return to war. “Hamas continues to show that their barbaric and irresponsible actions are the biggest threat to the Israeli and Palestinian people,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, adding that Israel will “respond forcefully” to Hamas’ “brutal rule.”
The U.S. seemed to back Netanyahu up with a statement warning of a planned Hamas attack on Palestinian civilians. “Should Hamas proceed with this attack, measures will be taken to protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire,” the State Department said. The Washington Post editorial board, in an editorial blaming Hamas for a potential collapse of the ceasefire, argued that “Terrorist brutality risks igniting a Palestinian civil war.”
But this emerging narrative omits crucial context: many of the groups now clashing with Hamas receive weapons,…
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