As Israel's genocidal war pauses, a new battle emerges over Gaza's internal security forces

Amid the ruins still scattered across Gaza's streets and the hum of Israeli drones overhead, a fragile calm exists, one that residents describe as an "unmanaged truce."

After nearly two years of Israel's genocidal war came a period of chaos, looting, and sporadic violence.

Subsequently, police forces reportedly loyal and linked to Hamas have been redeployed across the Gaza Strip, seeking to restore a semblance of order. Their presence is visible at key intersections, near hospitals and bakeries, where officers attempt to regulate traffic and prevent theft.

"We just want safety […] It doesn't matter who runs the street as long as people can move without fear or chaos," Mohammed Rohmi, a 45-year-old resident of Shujaiya, told The New Arab.

Behind this uneasy calm, a deeper struggle unfolds over who currently "governs" Gaza and who will lead the "second phase" of the US-backed plan, a phase mired in disagreement, suspicion, and competing regional interests.

Stalled transition, deepening political rift

Based on the 20-point Trump plan for a "ceasefire" in Gaza, the "second phase" aims to establish a transitional civil administration and security structure in Gaza. In practice, none of that has materialised.

"Every step toward implementation reveals new disputes and exposes the fragility of regional and international consensus," Ahed Ferwana, a Gaza-based political analyst, told TNA.

Disagreements, he said, extend beyond Palestinian factions to include Israel, Egypt, and the United States.

Israeli media outlets revealed that Israel insists it will not tolerate any independent Palestinian security entity in Gaza.

According to Palestinian officials at the Palestinian Authority (PA), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad during a meeting in Tel Aviv last week that Israel "will not accept the deployment of Palestinian Authority forces or any administration linked to Ramallah," describing such moves as a "threat to Israel's security."

Also, the officials said Netanyahu completely refused to keep Hamas's power in Gaza.

"The alternative," warns a Gaza security official, "is a power vacuum that will turn into a struggle for influence between factions, something that would derail any international effort to stabilise the Strip."

Ramallah-based political analyst Esmat Mansour argues that excluding Hamas from post-war governance would backfire.

 "Forcing Hamas out without an agreement will paralyse any new administration and could trigger internal conflict," he told TNA.

"The solution isn't exclusion but consensus, a joint authority that keeps arms under disciplined national oversight, not external dictates," he said.

The US-brokered framework envisions an interim body operating under international supervision, with a multinational force to oversee its work.

Israeli objections, coupled with Palestinian mistrust, have left the plan hanging by a thread. Netanyahu has repeatedly declared that "there is no place for Hamas or the PA" in post-war Gaza and allowed the Israeli army to continue bombarding Gaza and killing Palestinians, effectively freezing any progress and deepening uncertainty.

"This is a fragile balance between a truce without a political agreement and weapons without a settlement," he added, "Hamas still holds the ground, the PA is absent, Israel controls the crossings, and the people live amid all this with no clear horizon."

Hamas; between policing and political survival

Local sources within Hamas told TNA that the movement's 're-activation' of its police forces was guided by internal directives "to ensure public safety, prevent looting, and maintain minimal governance" in the absence of functioning state institutions.

The move follows weeks of lawlessness and a series of field executions against individuals accused of collaborating with Israel or charged with exploiting wartime chaos.

Although human rights groups condemned those actions, Hamas has reportedly suspended further executions as it focuses on stabilising the security environment.

A security officer working within the Hamas-run government in Gaza, who prefers not to mention his name, told TNA that the movement has been quietly implementing what insiders describe as an informal "three-month transitional plan" designed to maintain basic services and prevent total administrative collapse until a broader political framework emerges.

The source added that the movement has informed its employees that they are in a transitional period until a new administrative arrangement is established.

"Hamas has no intention of clinging to power but refuses to leave a vacuum that would drag Gaza into chaos," remarked the source.

A significant challenge ahead is the lack of coordination between Hamas on one side and Fatah and the PA on the other, as negotiations over post-war governance have largely stalled.

On various occasions, PA President Mahmoud Abbas stressed that any unified Palestinian government must "hold both arms and authority," implying the disarmament of Hamas before a political partnership can take shape.

Nevertheless, Hamas rejects that particular condition.

"Our weapons are not a burden but a guarantee for resistance," Mahmoud Merdawi, a senior Hamas official, said in a recent press statement, reiterating the movement's long-standing stance that disarmament will only come after the establishment of a fully sovereign Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, Cairo continues to mediate between Hamas and Fatah, as well as other Palestinian factions, to discuss the internal reconciliation.

But observers doubt a breakthrough is near. "Any meaningful progress depends first on internal Palestinian consensus before regional or international agreements," Hussam al-Dajani, a Palestinian political analyst from Gaza, said to TNA.

"That consensus is not even close, given the divide over weapons and authority, and the conflicting visions between Ramallah and Gaza over who should rule," he added.

For most Palestinians in Gaza, the political stalemate feels distant and abstract. "The police are back, but people are still scared. At night, the streets are empty. Everyone wonders—will Hamas stay, or will [the PA] return? We don't even know who rules Gaza any more," Mahmoud Awad, a 34-year-old vegetable vendor, remarked to TNA.