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Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/10/25/hamas-racing-to-entrench-itself-in-gaza/
Hamas Reasserting Itself in Gaza
(Telegraph-UK) Henry Bodkin - The staff of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program thought they were finally safe following the ceasefire, treating patients in their rented accommodation in Gaza City, when Hamas gunmen burst in on Oct. 13. Despite the clinic being a lifeline to hundreds, they violently evicted the staff and took over the premises, later moving in their own families. Within hours of the IDF withdrawal, Hamas swarmed across the city and many other key urban areas, as if the past two years had never happened. Reprisals, beatings, interrogations, disappearances and mass public executions became, almost overnight, the new reality for the exhausted population. At the same time, Hamas has been recruiting, re-arming and reorganizing, as well as repairing its tunnel network. Kobi Michael, a former head of the Palestinian desk at Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs, said, "Every day they are making lots of progress. Hamas has not changed its DNA; they do not intend to disarm themselves. They do not intend to leave Gaza and not be part of the day after." In the two weeks since the ceasefire came into effect, Hamas have reopened their "interrogation" centers in Gaza's main hospitals. Dozens have since been summoned for questioning, Gazans have claimed. Some say social media influencers and others who spoke out during the fighting, when Hamas was less able to mete out reprisals, have now gone silent or disappeared altogether.