Hamas is pushing to incorporate roughly 10,000 police officers affiliated with the terrorist organization into a new US-backed administrative mechanism in Gaza. The move is expected to meet resistance from Israel, even as the terrorist organization holds internal discussions over whether it would be willing to relinquish its weapons.
According to figures released by the terrorist organization, on the eve of the war in 2023 it employed 18,000 operatives across two policing bodies, Internal Security and General Security. During the war, 2,700 of them were killed, leaving about 15,300 operatives.
In addition, the police force mechanism included around 10,000 operatives before the war. During the fighting in Gaza, at least 1,400 members of the force were reported killed and 1,950 wounded. That leaves, at most, about 6,650 operatives considered fit for duty.
Are you interested in understanding the responsibilities that these reimagined Hamas police officers would hold? Is it truly necessary for us to speculate on this? One thing we are certain of is that Israel has not and can not agree to this.