Urgent questions are being raised over a patchwork of armed groups that have emerged to fight Hamas in Gaza over recent months. They include groups based around family clans, criminal gangs, and new militia – some of which are backed by Israel, as its prime minister recently admitted.
Elements within the Palestinian Authority - which governs parts of the occupied West Bank and is a political rival to Hamas - are also believed to be covertly sending support. But these militia - each operating in its own local area inside the 53% of Gaza's territory currently controlled by Israeli forces - have not been officially included in the US President Donald Trump's peace plan, which calls for an International Stabilisation Force and a newly-trained Palestinian police force to secure Gaza in the next stage of the deal.
One of the largest militia is headed by Yasser Abu Shabab, whose Popular Forces operate near the southern city of Rafah. In one recent social media video, his deputy talks about working in coordination with the Board of Peace - the international body to be tasked with running Gaza under the plan.
Hossam al-Astal, who leads a militia called the Counter-Terrorism Strike Force near the southern city of Khan Younis, told Israeli media this week that US representatives had confirmed his group would have a role in Gaza's future police force. A US official said they had nothing to announce at this time. Earlier this month, Astal grinned when I asked if he had spoken to the Americans about the future, and told me he would share the details soon.
I asked if those conversations left him happy.
Yes, he said, with a big smile.
Hossam al-Astal once worked for the Palestinian Authority. His group is small - maybe tens of fighters - but is increasingly confident, and runs a well-supplied tent city near Khan Younis. Let's say it's not the right time for me to answer this question, Astal smiled when I asked if Israel was supplying him. But we co-ordinate with the Israeli side to bring in food, weapons, everything.
Several armed groups are now ranged against Hamas, with complex and overlapping ties. Abu Shabab's group, for example, is accused of looting aid trucks sent into Gaza during the war, and reports in Israel have also suggested that two of its members have previous links to the Islamic State group (IS).
Netanyahu has insisted Gaza will not be run by either Hamas or its rival, the Palestinian Authority. Under the US peace plan, a non-political, technocratic committee of Palestinians will run Gaza in the short term under international oversight, until the PA reforms are complete.
The question of what will happen to Gaza's new militia under a durable peace still remains unanswered. Aside from helping to weaken Hamas, Israel's support for armed groups could make it easier to divide Palestinian opposition to Israel, and maintain influence inside Gaza once its forces withdraw. Some critics say that arming disparate local groups will make it harder to persuade Hamas to disarm, and for international forces to step into the role of securing Gaza.
