Hamas’ ability to keep afloat through most of its conflicts with Israel has been its reliance on the perception that Qatar has the leverage it needs to keep Hamas’ military wing on a tight leash.
As Tom Nash explains above, the Hamas’ military wing led by Yahya Sinwar might have overplayed its hand in toying with Israel last night when it delayed handing over Israeli hostages for nearly eight hours. Qatar was reportedly furious with the leadership in Gaza and warned them not to mess around. Yet, it was not Qatar that convinced Hamas to stop the games, it was Egypt.
Egypt hates Hamas almost as much as Israel and would love to see a Gaza Strip completely cleansed of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and their civilian supporters. Most people in the West don’t know that it is Egypt that keeps an even tighter border wall with Gaza and has barely let in any refugees during the fighting.
Egypt and the other Sunni Arab states like the UAE and Saudi Arabia hate the Muslim Brotherhood. Not only does Egypt’s El Sisi see the Muslim Brotherhood as a mortal enemy, but Saudi Arabia does also. It was Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince himself who has been implicated in the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi was no mere journalist, but rather was a Muslim Brotherhood member. Hamas is essentially a spinoff of the Muslim Brotherhood.
This explains Egypt’s and Saudi Arabia’s animosity towards Hamas and its leadership. Although we do not know what Egypt said to Hamas, it clearly moved the Hamas leadership back to following the hostage release agreement.
Interestingly, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to the northern Gaza Strip today where he reassured the soldiers that he is set on wiping out Hamas came just after Egypt clearly threatened Hamas over its games. Could this mean that Israel has a green light from the Abraham Accords countries and Egypt to crush Hamas once and for all?
If this is the case – expect Israel to finish uprooting Gaza’s Nazi-like rulers soon after the “ceasefire” ends.