Israel’s Gaza militia experiment nears its end as Hamas secures a key demand

Less than a year after the failed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation project was buried in the sands of Gaza, another Israeli wartime concept appears to be heading toward the same fate: the network of local militias Israel established and cultivated as a counterweight to Hamas. The question of what will happen to those groups receives relatively little attention in Israel. In Gaza, however, it has become increasingly central, particularly after Hamas succeeded in inserting into the 15-point framework a demand that the militias be disarmed and that their members be barred from joining the security forces of a future technocratic government. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to insist, including after Jared Kushner’s visit this week, that Israel will keep acting against Hamas and will not withdraw from areas of Gaza until the organization is fully disarmed. Even so, U.S.