Palestinian militants from Hamas and members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza City, on Nov. 2, 2025. (Archive photo: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP)
Hamas is working to consolidate its hold on the Gaza Strip by installing loyalists in key administrative positions, collecting taxes, and continuing to pay salaries, while internal elections to appoint a new leader are still being prepared within the movement.
According to an assessment by the Israeli army seen by Reuters and presented to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of January, the army believes that Hamas "is implementing measures on the ground to preserve its influence and control over the Gaza Strip from the local level up, particularly by integrating its supporters into government institutions, security agencies and local authorities."
Officially, the movement claims to be ready to hand over the territory’s administration to a committee of Palestinian technocrats backed by Washington and led by Ali Chaath, a former official of the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. However, Hamas points out that Israel has not yet authorized the members of this committee to enter the enclave to carry out their duties.
"Hamas has appointed five district governors, all linked to its armed wing, the Ezzeddine al-Qassam Brigades," reports Reuters, citing Palestinian sources with direct knowledge of the Islamist group’s operations.
They add that high-ranking officials have also been replaced at the ministries of Economy and Interior, and are in charge of taxation and security respectively. A new deputy health minister also recently appeared during a hospital tour in Gaza, according to a video released by the ministry. This document, first reported by Israel's Channel 13, is the most detailed evaluation made public to date.
The head of the government's media office, Ismail al-Thawabta, however, disputed the existence of new appointments, saying that only temporary replacements had been made to avoid "any administrative vacuum" and ensure the continuity of public services during political negotiations.
Internal elections in Hamas
After several months under the collective leadership of Mohammad Darwish, Hamas, for its part, continues to prepare internal elections, according to the BBC, which cites a Palestinian source close to the movement.
This election will take place after Hamas’s hierarchy was decapitated following the start of Israel's war on Gaza. Its former political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, was eliminated by Israel in Tehran in July 2024, while Yahya Sinwar, its former military leader, considered the architect of the Oct. 7, 2023, operation, was killed in October of the same year in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
According to Hamas' internal rules, the Hamas leader is elected by an electoral college of about 86 members from the Shura Council, the movement’s highest decision-making body, which includes representatives from Gaza, the occupied West Bank, abroad, and Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
The Shura elects the 18 members of the political bureau, including its chief, every four years. The competition is mainly between Khalil Hayya, the Hamas chief in the Gaza Strip — widely regarded as being close to the political lines championed by Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh — and Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas official abroad and a historic figure of the movement, who was its leader for nearly two decades.
Ministries and local administrations in Gaza
At the ministerial level, the Israeli military assessment estimates that at least 14 of Gaza’s 17 ministries are now functioning, compared to only five at the height of the war.
Thirteen of the 25 municipalities have also resumed their activities. Hamas is said to have appointed five governors and four mayors to replace officials killed or removed from office during the conflict. Appointing individuals linked to the armed wing to these positions is reportedly aimed in part at countering local armed groups and militias supported by Israel.
Meanwhile, after it was announced Thursday evening that recruitment had begun for a new Palestinian police force placed under the authority of the technocratic committee set to take over the enclave, Hamas is reportedly seeking to integrate "some 10,000 of its fighters, including several hundred from its powerful internal security service" into this force, the report says.
The launch of this recruitment drive was announced Thursday during the inaugural meeting of the Peace Council in Washington by Nickolay Mladenov, the senior representative for Gaza appointed by Washington. "Within the first few hours, 2,000 Palestinians have already applied" to join this "transition" force, he said.
Furthermore, an Israeli document states that Hamas draws most of its income "from the private sector, particularly through taxes imposed on goods smuggled into Gaza, such as cigarettes, batteries, solar panels or cellphones."
According to an Israeli indictment targeting a smuggling network, the movement is said to have received since the start of the war "hundreds of millions of shekels [one dollar equals about 3.12 shekels] thanks to the taxation of cigarettes smuggled into the enclave."
This would enable Hamas to continue paying salaries to civil servants and fighters.
