Short of commanders, deprived of much of its tunnel network, and unsure of support from its ally Iran, the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas is battling to survive in Gaza in the face of rebellious local clans and relentless Israeli military pressure.

Hamas fighters are operating autonomously under orders to hold out as long as possible, but the Islamist group is struggling to maintain its grip as Israel openly backs tribes opposing it, three sources close to Hamas said.

With a humanitarian crisis in Gaza intensifying international pressure for a ceasefire, Hamas badly needs a pause in the fighting, one of the people said.

Not only would a ceasefire offer respite to weary Gazans, who are growing increasingly critical of Hamas, but it would also allow the Islamist group to crush rogue elements, including some clans and looters who have been stealing aid, the person said.

To counter the immediate threat, Hamas has sent some of its top fighters to kill one rebellious leader, Yasser Abu Shabab, but so far he has remained beyond their reach in the Rafah area held by Israeli troops, according to two Hamas sources and two other sources familiar with the situation.

Reuters spoke to 16 sources including people close to Hamas, Israeli security sources, and diplomats who painted a picture of a severely weakened group, retaining some sway and operational capacity in Gaza despite its setbacks, but facing stiff challenges.

Hamas is still capable of landing blows: it killed seven Israeli soldiers in an attack in southern Gaza on Tuesday. But three diplomats in the Middle East said intelligence assessments showed it had lost its centralized command and control and was reduced to limited, surprise attacks.

An Israeli military official estimated Israel had killed 20,000 or more Hamas fighters and destroyed or rendered unusable hundreds of miles of tunnels under the coastal strip. Much of Gaza has been turned to rubble in 20 months of conflict.

One Israeli security source said the average age of Hamas fighters was “getting lower by the day.” Israeli security sources say Hamas is recruiting from hundreds of thousands of impoverished, unemployed, displaced young men.

Hamas does not disclose how many of its fighters have died.

“They’re hiding because they are being instantly hit by planes, but they appear here and there, organizing queues in front of bakeries, protecting aid trucks, or punishing criminals,” said Essam, 57 a construction worker in Gaza City.

“They’re not like before the war, but they exist.”

Asked for comment for this story, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the group was working for an agreement to end the war with Israel but “surrender is not an option.”

Hamas remained committed to negotiations and was “ready to release all prisoners at once,” he said, referring to Israeli hostages, but it wanted the killing to stop and Israel to withdraw.

‘IT DOESN’T LOOK GOOD’

Hamas is a shadow of the group that attacked Israel in 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking another 251 hostages. Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas.

The damage inflicted by Israel is unlike anything Hamas has suffered since its creation, with most of its top military commanders in Gaza killed. Founded in 1987, Hamas had gradually established itself as the main rival of the Fatah faction led by President Mahmoud Abbas and finally seized Gaza from his control in 2007.

With a US-brokered truce in the Iran-Israel war holding, attention has switched back to the possibility of a Gaza deal that might end the conflict and release the remaining hostages.

One of the people close to Hamas told Reuters it would welcome a truce, even for a couple of months, to confront the local clans that are gaining influence.

But he said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s terms for ending the war – including Hamas leaders leaving Gaza – would amount to total defeat, and Hamas would never surrender.

“We keep the faith, but in reality it doesn’t look good,” the source said.

Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, said he believed Hamas was simply trying to survive. That was not just a physical challenge of holding out militarily, he said, but above all a political one.

“They face being eliminated on the ground in Gaza if the war doesn’t stop, but they also face being erased from any governing formula that ends the war in Gaza (if such a thing can be found),” he wrote in response to Reuters’ questions.

Palestinian tribes have emerged as part of Israel’s strategy to counter Hamas. Netanyahu has said publicly that Israel has been arming clans that oppose Hamas, but has not said which.

One of the most prominent challenges has come from Abu Shabab, a Palestinian Bedouin based in the Rafah area, which is under Israeli control.

Hamas wants Abu Shabab captured, dead or alive, accusing him of collaboration with Israel and planning attacks on the terrorist group, three Hamas sources told Reuters.

Abu Shabab controls eastern Rafah and his group is believed to have freedom of movement in the wider Rafah area. Images on their Facebook page show their armed men organizing the entry of aid trucks from the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Announcements by his group indicate that it is trying to build an independent administration in the area, though they deny trying to become a governing authority. The group has called on people from Rafah now in other areas of Gaza to return home, promising food and shelter.

In response to Reuters’ questions, Abu Shabab’s group denied getting support from Israel or contacts with the Israeli army, describing itself as a popular force protecting humanitarian aid from looting by escorting aid trucks.

It accused Hamas of violence and muzzling dissent.

A Hamas security official said the Palestinian security services would “strike with an iron fist to uproot the gangs of the collaborator Yasser Abu Shabab,” saying they would show no mercy or hesitation and accusing him of being part of “an effort to create chaos and lawlessness.”

Not all of Gaza’s clans are at odds with Hamas, however.

On Thursday, a tribal alliance said its men had protected aid trucks from looters in northern Gaza. Sources close to Hamas said the group had approved of the alliance’s involvement.

Israel said Hamas fighters had in fact commandeered the trucks, which both the clans and Hamas denied.

IRAN UNCERTAINTY

Palestinian analyst Akram Attallah said the emergence of Abu Shabab was a result of the weakness of Hamas, though he expected him to fail ultimately because Palestinians broadly reject any hint of collaboration with Israel.

Nevertheless, regardless of how small Abu Shabab’s group is, the fact Hamas has an enemy from the same culture was dangerous, he said. “It remains a threat until it is dealt with.”

Israel’s bombing campaign against Iran has added to the uncertainties facing Hamas. Tehran’s backing for Hamas played a big part in developing its armed wing into a force capable of shooting missiles deep into Israel.

While both Iran and Israel have claimed victory, Netanyahu on Sunday indicated the Israeli campaign against Tehran had further strengthened his hand in Gaza, saying it would “help us expedite our victory and the release of all our hostages.”

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that great progress was being made on Gaza, adding that the strike on Iran would help get the hostages released.

A Palestinian official close to Hamas said the group was weighing the risk of diminished Iranian backing, anticipating “the impact will be on the shape of funding and the expertise Iran used to give to the resistance and Hamas.”

One target of Israel’s campaign in Iran was a Revolutionary Guards officer who oversaw coordination with Hamas. Israel said Saeed Izadi, whose death it announced on Saturday, was the driving force behind the Iran–Hamas axis.

Hamas extended condolences to Iran on Thursday, calling Izadi a friend who was directly responsible for ties with “the leadership of the Palestinian resistance.”

A source from an Iran-backed group in the region said Izadi helped develop Hamas capabilities, including how to carry out complex attacks, including rocket launches, infiltration operations, and drones.

Asked about how the Israeli campaign against Iran might affect its support for Hamas, Abu Zuhri said Iran was a large and powerful country that would not be defeated.

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More than a dozen Israeli air strikes battered a row of hilltops in southern Lebanon on Friday, security sources said, with the Israeli military saying it had attacked a damaged military site that terrorist group Hezbollah was seeking to restore.

The simultaneous strikes hit a mountainous strip near the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh, according to the Lebanese security sources, who said Iran-backed Hezbollah likely still had arms depots there. There was no immediate comment from the Islamist group.

The Israeli military said its fighter jets had attacked a site used to manage Hezbollah’s “fire and defense system.” It said the site was destroyed in last year’s war but that Hezbollah was attempting to resume activities there in breach of the November truce that ended the conflict.

Lebanon‘s President Joseph Aoun on Friday fired the same accusation back at Israel, saying it was continually violating the US-brokered ceasefire deal by keeping up strikes on Lebanon.

The ceasefire deal stipulates that southern Lebanon must be free of any non-state arms or fighters, Israeli troops must leave southern Lebanon as Lebanese troops deploy there. and all fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border must stop.

Israeli troops remain in at least five posts within Lebanese territory and its air force regularly kills rank-and-file Hezbollah members or people affiliated with the group.

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Eric Hoffer was an American longshoreman and self-taught philosopher. His 1951 book The True Believer brilliantly dissected the inner workings of mass movements and the dangers posed by populism.

Writing with the simple clarity of someone who spent more time dealing with real people than attending conferences, Hoffer understood how populist ideology seduces the masses — by dazzling them with attractive ideas and unattainable utopian promises.

“It is startling to realize,” he wrote, “how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible.”

Hoffer died more than 40 years ago, but that line could have been written yesterday. Exactly this nightmare is unfolding before our eyes. Today’s grand illusion — dressed up in protest chants and viral campaign videos — is progressive humanitarianism, which emphasizes social justice, equality, and, most significantly, systemic change.

The younger generation is dazzled by its promises, lured by its slogans, and swept up in its moral certainty. Which is why, in an era where a well-edited TikTok carries more weight than a serious résumé, New York City has just handed its Democratic mayoral nomination to a former rapper whose primary credential is that he has mastered the art of being a progressive humanitarian — and knowing how to sell it.

I wish I were exaggerating. But alas, welcome to the era of viral mayors and Instagram messiahs. Zohran Mamdani — a 33-year-old Democratic Socialist with a flair for TikTok aesthetics and a résumé thinner than a swipe-left dating profile — has just triumphed over Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City.

Yes, that Cuomo. The former governor. The guy who once ran the entire state — taken down by someone who used to perform under the name Young Cardamom and now proudly refuses to condemn calls to “globalize the intifada.” We’re not in Kansas anymore — we’re in Queens, and the revolution is apparently being livestreamed.

Mamdani’s win is being celebrated in some quarters as a historic moment — the potential first Muslim and Indian American mayor of America’s biggest city. It’s “one in the eye” for the stuffy elites who just don’t get Gen Z, they say.

And in a sane world, that would be a proud milestone. But strip away the headlines and the hashtags, and you quickly realize that sanity has taken a leave of absence. Mamdani is nothing more than a populist ideologue — a man who packages radicalism in the language of justice, makes promises he cannot possibly keep, and, like so many before him, sells chaos dressed up as hope.

Let’s be clear: Mamdani isn’t some fresh-faced civic miracle. He’s a seasoned — and deeply ideological — activist who’s made a career out of opposing things rather than building them. His one tangible legislative win is a pilot program for free buses in a few neighborhoods. His campaign promises are free childcare, frozen rents, free public transport, and a sweeping expansion of affordable housing — all funded, apparently, by sprinkling magic tax dust on “the rich.”

He’s the kind of candidate who preaches equality and coexistence — unless you’re a Jew who believes Israel should exist as a Jewish state. While Mamdani has said Israel has “a right to exist … with equal rights for all its citizens,” he has declined to affirm its status as a Jewish state.

He adamantly refused to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada,” a rallying cry widely denounced by Jewish groups and even the US Holocaust Memorial Museum as incitement to violence against Jews and Jewish targets. He also introduced legislation — the “Not on our dime!” act — targeting New York nonprofits that fund Israeli charities.

Mamdani has mastered the art of moral posturing — always championing “humanity,” but only when the humans in question pass his ideological purity test.

Mamdani’s appeal is real — dangerously real. He’s charismatic, telegenic, multilingual, and youthful. His campaign videos drip with Bollywood flair and street-walking humility. He even walked the length of Manhattan for a photo op, as if performative endurance were a substitute for policy depth.

But it’s all carefully curated populist theater — a choreographed persona masking a radical, destabilizing agenda. Beneath the dance beats and righteous hashtags lies a far more perilous proposition: the dismantling of complex, functioning governance in favor of utopian slogans and impossible promises.  And if left unchecked, this fantasy-driven politics will hollow out New York City, leaving behind a dysfunctional, diminished shell of what was once the world’s greatest metropolis.

Which brings me to the greatest populist in Jewish history: Korach. He, too, was a charismatic rebel — the man who stood up to Moses and Aaron and declared, in effect, “The old order is broken — it’s time for change.”

Korach didn’t challenge Moses on theology or principle. He challenged him on equality. “The entire congregation is holy,” he proclaimed. “Why then do you set yourselves above the people?” It sounded noble. It sounded democratic. It sounded like a grassroots revolution. It was, in fact, a catastrophe.

Korach didn’t want to elevate the nation — he wanted to topple its leadership. What he offered wasn’t a future — it was chaos. And the people, weary from the journey, tired of wandering, disillusioned by hardship, followed him. And they paid the price.

As the medieval commentator Ramban points out, what Korach did was not a spontaneous protest — he carefully plotted his move, waiting for the moment when morale was low and frustration was high. His rhetoric may have sounded righteous, but his true motive was to undermine the existing framework and thereby gain power. Korach cloaked personal ambition in the language of equality — and that’s what made him so dangerous.

Mamdani is reading straight from Korach’s script — only the costume has changed. He doesn’t want to improve New York; he wants to dismantle it. He doesn’t seek to reform flawed systems; he seeks to uproot and replace them with a radical ideology that divides rather than unites. To him, opponents aren’t fellow citizens with different ideas — they’re villains in a moral crusade.

He talks like he wants to do good, but the “good” he’s peddling will fracture New York along ideological, racial, and religious lines, undermine core American values, stir strife and resentment, and leave the city a battleground of slogans, not solutions. This isn’t idealism — it’s demolition wrapped in the language of hope.

The irony is that populists like Mamdani sell the snake oil but never deliver — and the people who believed in them are left to deal with the wreckage.  The renters who find out that rent-freezing drives landlords out of the market. The bus riders who learn that “free” service means longer waits, broken schedules, and collapsing infrastructure. The city workers who face layoffs when the budget implodes.

And in the end, just like Korach, populists like Mamdani always go down with the ship they set ablaze.

Moses didn’t prevail because he was popular. He prevailed because he was right. Because leadership isn’t about slogans or soundbites — it’s about responsibility. It’s about ensuring every stakeholder has a place and making the future brighter than the present.

New York doesn’t need a culture warrior in City Hall. It needs a mayor. Because, as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks once said: “A society is strong when it cares for the weak. But it becomes weak when it cares only for the strong — or only for the weak.”

The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California. 

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