With Rifles and Defiance, Hamas Clings to Remnants of Gaza Rule

It’s hemmed in by Israel’s tanks and troops. US President Donald Trump has threatened it with annihilation. But Hamas, defiant in the ruins of less than half of Gaza, is clawing its way back to a semblance of pre-war governance.

Surviving civil servants have returned to work. Taxes are being collected, including from now-homeless Palestinians living in tents. Courts are open for the few who can still afford to bring cases. Hamas functionaries, some of them armed fighters recently reassigned from fighting the Israelis, keep watch at street corners.