Israel Insists on Full Terror Dismantling as Hamas Seeks Power Inside Gaza

by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Chief

(Worthy News) – Israel is firmly rejecting any attempt to allow Hamas to retain influence or authority in Gaza, as the terrorist organization pushes to embed roughly 10,000 of its police officers into a new U.S.-backed governing framework for the enclave.

Israeli officials view the move as a direct violation of the postwar framework agreed to under the October ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump, which conditions Israel’s continued military withdrawals on the complete dismantling and disarmament of Hamas.

Israel has made clear it draws no distinction between Hamas’s military wing and its police or internal security forces, considering all of them integral components of a designated terrorist organization. Israeli leaders insist Hamas must be removed entirely from Gaza’s governing, security, and enforcement structures.

The ceasefire’s second phase calls for Gaza’s day-to-day governance to be transferred to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a technocratic Palestinian body operating under U.S. oversight and explicitly designed to exclude Hamas. The committee operates under the umbrella of the newly formed Board of Peace, established last week to oversee Gaza’s transition, demilitarization, and eventual reconstruction.

Despite this, Hamas has circulated internal instructions urging more than 40,000 civil servants and security personnel to cooperate with the new administration, while assuring them that the group is working to secure their inclusion. Sources say this effort includes Hamas’s police force, many of whom continue patrolling areas of Gaza still under the group’s control.

Israel has not responded publicly to the proposal, but officials have repeatedly stated that no Hamas-affiliated personnel will be permitted to serve in Gaza’s future governance or security arrangements. According to the Israel Defense Forces, members of Hamas’s police and internal security forces actively participated in the October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 were abducted.

Speaking to the Knesset this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underscored that Israel’s objectives remain unchanged. He said the next phase of the Gaza process “is not reconstruction,” but rather “the demilitarization of the Strip and the disarming of Hamas.”

The Trump administration has echoed that position, pressing for the immediate decommissioning of heavy weapons and the verified dismantling of all armed factions. Under U.S.-backed principles, only a single, vetted security authority under the NCAG would be allowed to operate, with all other armed groups either integrated after rigorous screening or fully dissolved.

Reconstruction funding, U.S. officials say, will be released only in areas where Hamas has been fully dismantled and demilitarization verified, creating what Washington describes as an irreversible pathway away from terror control.

While Hamas has signaled it is willing to relinquish administrative responsibilities, Israel insists that governance alone is insufficient. Any future arrangement, Israeli leaders say, must ensure Hamas is stripped of weapons, authority, and institutional presence in Gaza — permanently.

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