Rebuilding Gaza Without Democracy: Hamas Turns Against Its Own People.Hamas security forces have redeployed across northern Gaza

New York 2025 October, 12 by John Killiam

The ceasefire brought silence to the skies over Gaza — but not peace.
As displaced families begin to return to what remains of their homes, Hamas is once again tightening its grip on the shattered territory.
According to the Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat, Hamas security forces have redeployed across northern Gaza, particularly in Jabalia and Beit Lahia, launching reprisals against local factions accused of collaborating with Israel.
Witnesses speak of summary executions and arbitrary arrests, marking the beginning of yet another wave of internal terror.

From resistance to repression

What was once a movement of resistance has become a machinery of internal persecution.
Hamas, long portrayed as the shield of the Palestinian cause, now acts as its jailer.
Under the pretext of restoring “order,” it is purging militias, activists, and civilians who had self-organised during the Israeli siege to deliver aid and maintain local security.

The targets include the Popular Forces of Yasser Abu Shabab, accused of treason and collaboration.
But the real crime of these groups is independence — the ability to act without Hamas’s permission.
For Gaza’s civilians, the end of the war has brought not freedom, but a new kind of captivity.

Reconstruction without democracy

Hamas’s reoccupation of Gaza’s ruins reveals a deeper crisis: reconstruction without democracy.
After nearly two decades of authoritarian rule and no elections, Hamas seeks to rebuild the territory as a kingdom of obedience, not liberty.
International donors — from the EU, the US, Qatar, and Egypt — risk pouring billions into a system that remains undemocratic and unaccountable.

But reconstruction without political reform means rebuilding the prison, not the country.
A durable peace cannot rest on cement and cash transfers alone; it requires representation, pluralism, and justice.

Two leaderships, no nation

The Palestinian political landscape remains divided between Hamas’s military rule in Gaza and the stagnant bureaucracy of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.
Between these two failed leaderships, the people themselves are trapped — victims first of occupation, now of their own rulers.
Hamas’s violence against fellow Palestinians shows that the greatest threat to Gaza’s future may no longer come from Israel, but from within.

The real challenge: liberating freedom

The international community must distinguish between defending Palestinians and defending Hamas.
To support the people of Gaza today means to defend them from their own oppressors, not empower those who thrive on fear and control.

Rebuilding Gaza must begin with political liberation, not just reconstruction.
Because a city rebuilt without democracy is not reborn —
it is simply redecorated tyranny.