AMMAN, Jordan — When Israel and Hamas signed a ceasefire earlier this year, it brought into question the fate of militias Israel cultivated during the devastating two-year war as an alternative ruling force in Gaza. Many expected that Hamas — still the dominant force in the Strip — would hunt them down.
Instead, Israel has shifted the militias to the half of Gaza from which it has yet to withdraw, east of the so-called Yellow Line, the military boundary that divides Gaza in two. In the Israeli-controlled half, five factions, still supported by Israel with arms and aid, have established what are essentially tiny fiefdoms, even as they continue to wage a harassment campaign across the Yellow Line to stop Hamas from reasserting its rule.
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