Yoni Ben Menachem, a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Foreign Affairs and Security, says this morning that the atmosphere in Gaza is one of total defeat for Hamas, and that even in the Arab world there is a growing understanding that the October 7 massacre was a “historical mistake that brought a new catastrophe upon the Palestinians.” 

According to him, “Hamas’s military wing is now confronting large clans in the Strip — the Dormoush clan in the north and the Al-Majida clan in the south — which could ignite an internal civil war.”

Ben Menachem emphasizes that Hamas does not intend to disarm, but is gradually losing control over the territory and the trust of the Gazan public: “They have lost their power, their sources of funding, and the ability to control through fear. What remains for them is propaganda only.”