Hours after Israel withdrew its troops from Gaza City in the opening stage of a US-brokered ceasefire, tens of thousands of Palestinians trudged back to sift through bombed out buildings overseen by Hamas security operatives.
The Hamas interior ministry said in a statement on Friday that its police force would deploy across the territory. By Saturday, masked men wearing caps labeled “Internal Security” and armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles were inspecting car trunks and reasserting their authority, according to witnesses and images posted on social media and filmed by Al Jazeera.