Is Hamas's grip on Gaza weakening?
Abu Shabab himself has stepped into the spotlight with remarkable audacity. He has granted interviews, issued voice recordings, and cloaked his movement in the language of civic virtue. In a recent audio recording, he insisted: 'We have not and will not work with the occupation. Our goal is to protect Palestinian human rights from Hamas's terrorism.' He described his group's weapons as 'simple weapons that we collected from the local population,' and characterised coordination with the Palestinian Authority (PA) as limited to security screening:
We conduct a security check through the Palestinian intelligence service, which is cooperating with us in this matter, so we can guarantee that no terrorist elements enter.
Yet behind the public bravado lies a more intricate web.
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