"Hamas still controls Gaza," former head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) research headquarters Neomi Neumann told KAN News on Thursday.
Even after three years of war, Hamas maintains effective control over the Gaza Strip as "the Palestinian public encounters Hamas every day and therefore, from their perspective, Hamas is here to stay."
Neumann, now a researcher at the Washington Institute, told KAN that Hamas has become a decentralized system of government that the public does not need to hold accountable. She explained that policing and enforcement in Gaza is carried out via secret units that "instill fear, enforce discipline, and restore control in areas where the government has collapsed."
She also explained that Hamas generates between 2 and 5 million US dollars daily through heavy taxes which it imposes on goods in the Gaza Strip, telling KAN that Hamas "boycotts some of the humanitarian aid and sells the products at high prices on the black market."
Hamas "sells paid solutions in Gaza and is the main employment factor," she said, adding that it "determines who in the population will receive what, and creates dependency."
"In the past we called it 'Hodna' and 'Tahdiya'; today we call it the Trump Initiative," she added.
Neumann: Trump's Gaza plan should be carried out
Despite this, Neumann told KAN that US President Donald Trump's plan for Gaza should continue.
"The plan is good, and we should move forward with it, but there are two problems: both Hamas and Israel are piling up difficulties. Hamas says Israel must withdraw first, and Israel demands that Hamas disarm."
"We must bring the National Committee for the Management of Gaza and the Multinational Stabilization Force into the Strip so that Hamas loses its power," she said.
She explained that she thinks that in the future the Palestinian Authority should be the governing body of Gaza, adding that "Hamas's sources of income must be dried up immediately, its infiltration of institutions must be prevented, aid mechanisms must be created that do not depend on it, and above all, its growing entrenchment in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] must be prevented."
Democrats MK Gilad Kariv responds
"This is what Netanyahu's absolute victory looks like," Democrats MK Gilad Kariv said in a post on X/Twitter, responding to Neumann's claims about Gaza.
"Two to three million a day to Hamas in Gaza," he said, citing Neumann's reports of Hamas's economic control. "Netanyahu is dangerous to Israel's security."
Gaza Board of Peace source criticizes Israel
A source in the Gaza Board of Peace (BoP) told KAN that Israel had "given up on a 'clean cut' in the Gaza Strip and is maintaining the policy it had before October 7," criticizing Israeli policy with regard to Gaza.
"Hamas remains on its feet, and Israel is not dismantling it completely - neither for better nor for worse. We hope that Israel will soon implement the 20-point agreement it signed," the source explained to KAN.
Israeli officials reportedly told the BoP that Hamas needs to disarm, and "if it didn't, we would disarm it ourselves."