“Al-Aqsa Flood” – Hamas imposes itself on the Palestinian political scene with the war against Israel

Waging war against Israel by the Gaza Strip controlled by Hamas was imposed on all of the occupied Palestinian territories, marginalizing the Palestinian Authority, which most Palestinians now consider a “burden”, experts estimate.

With the “Al-Aqsa Flood”, a coordinated attack by land, sea and air – something unprecedented for the armed Palestinian factions -, the Islamist movement “asserted itself as the Palestinian interlocutor of reference, the one setting both the political and military agenda”says Xavier Guignard, an expert on occupied territories at the Noria Center.

According to him, the facts changed radically on Saturday with the attack by Hamas which has so far caused 1,200 deaths on the Israeli side. Israel’s retaliation in Gaza has killed at least 1,200 people.

“Hamas unleashed an unprecedented undertaking succeeding in concealing her preparations for months,” notes Guignard.

A tactic that has nothing in common “with everything we have been seeing for a year and a half in the occupied West Bank: the outbreak of limited episodes, small armed groups whose ideology and action we find difficult to understand.”

“Weight”

The Palestinian Authority, created in 1993 under the Oslo Accords, appears to have lost its grip: in Gaza, where Hamas ousted it by force in 2007, and even in the West Bank, where its president is based Mahmoud Abbas whose term officially ended in 2009.

A September poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research revealed that 62 percent of Palestinians believe the Palestinian Authority has become a “burden,” while 58 percent said they favor “resumption of conflict and an armed intifada,” according to the French Agency and the Athens News Agency.

For Guinar “the Authority can continue to exist (…) without having the slightest role, but the political project it embodies – cooperation with Israel on the issue of security and control of the Palestinian population on behalf of Israel – received a a blow with long-term effects.”

And while the Palestinian Authority’s choice to work with Israel is being criticized, “Hamas now appears to be fully committed to the path of endless conflict, rejecting the role of governor of Gaza and the modus vivendi with Israel,” notes the Hugh Lovat researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

On Tuesday night, the green flags of Hamas flew in the heart of Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority. During a demonstration of support for the Gaza Strip, dozens of Palestinians shouted pro-Hamas slogans.

All of Ramallah is Hamas,” they chanted, followed by slogans in support of Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in Gaza, and Mohammed Deif, who commands Hamas’ armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades.

“Only role, to ask for help”

But the conflicts are not limited to Gaza.

In the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967 and now dotted with Jewish settlements and checkpoints, clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers have killed at least 28 Palestinians and wounded 130 others since Saturday, according to the Palestinian ministry. Health.

Abbas, who for decades has been the voice of peaceful resistance calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state, has not been heard from much since Saturday. In a statement he recalled “the right of the Palestinians to defend themselves against the terrorism of the settlers and the occupation forces”.

The secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which includes all Palestinian movements except Hamas and Islamic Jihad, said the “Palestinian administration is in contact with world leaders to stop the war.” and to “allow food and medicine to enter Gaza.”

But, as Palestinian political scientist Jihad Harb reminds us, “the Palestinian Authority does not control Gaza or Hamas fighters, and it has never had influence in Israel, so the only role it can play at this stage is to ask for help for Gaza”.