Last week, militant group Hamas said it would disband its civilian administration, which was part of a US-brokered peace deal from 2025.
But Gazans report that many institutions operate as they always have. For example, Iyad Saleh said he went to general government offices to get a copy of his university diploma, which he had lost during the war.
“There is no place to go in Gaza except the Hamas-run institutions,” Saleh told DW by phone from Gaza City. “The only institution providing services to residents is the same institution that existed before the war, with the same staff.”
The 19-year-old man lost his documents when displaced. He hopes to apply for a scholarship abroad, as he was one of the best in his school. He is studying elsewhere, hoping to get a ticket out of Gaza.
Naama Saeed, 39, suffers from a chronic illness and she went to the health ministry this week to try to get a medical referral document.
“The responsible authority in Gaza is still the Ministry of Health, and it is the only entity authorized to issue the necessary official documents,” Saeed told DW. “If there were any other official body we could approach without having to deal with the current government, we would not hesitate.”
Government schemes but no change on ground
In October 2025, the US Peace Plan outlined plans for a new administration consisting of independent technocrats. The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), a transitional body composed of Palestinian experts under the supervision of the Peace Board, was established by US President Donald Trump.
It started its work in early 2026. However, 15 members of the committee are staying in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, waiting for Israel’s permission to enter Gaza and begin their work.
“There has been no change, no one is stepping forward to take over power,” Ghassan Khatib, a lecturer in international politics at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah, told DW. “Neither the Americans nor the Israelis are enthusiastic about this move [by Hamas]. And the Palestinian Authority is not able to take advantage of this move because they are not allowed to live there by both Israel and the United States,” he said.
Furthermore, Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by several countries, has already said that its ministries will remain in place with their appointed staff, while it will continue to oversee security and policing in the parts of Gaza left under its control.
About 30% of the land is under Hamas control
Following Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, Israel retaliated, displacing almost the entire population of 2.2 million people and destroying large parts of Gaza. The war has been described as genocide by many experts and a United Nations commission of inquiry.
While Israel has vowed to “eliminate Hamas”, the terrorist group remains in power, albeit only in about 30% of Gaza. Israeli troops now occupy the remaining 70% of the narrow area of the Mediterranean Sea. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the new division as a buffer zone to prevent further attacks by Palestinian militants.
Meanwhile, the ceasefire process has stalled, with Israel and Hamas blaming each other for violations. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since a ceasefire in October 2025, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
A key issue remains neutralizing Hamas’s weapons. Hamas has refused to disarm unless Israel ceases its attacks on Gaza and withdraws.
Ibrahim al-Madhoun, a Gaza political analyst close to Hamas who currently lives in Turkey, said, “Hamas knows Israel wants the weapons to be surrendered, but Hamas will not raise the white flag and will not give up completely.”
He said the handover to civilian administration was “an attempt by Hamas to break the deadlock, especially after talks in Cairo with Nikolay Mladenov yielded no results.” Mladenov is the high representative of the peace board that is mediating the talks.
Hamas’s popularity under scrutiny
Protests and dissent have been routinely silenced by force. Last month, calls for protests against Hamas organized on social media by Palestinians living abroad fell on deaf ears in Gaza.
Ghassan Khatib, founder of the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center (JMCC), which specializes in public opinion studies, said, “We realize that people who say ‘I don’t trust any political faction’ are making up 60% of the sample used in our polls.” “This number continues to increase.”
However, pollsters say surveys should be conducted with caution due to the difficult situation in Gaza. Increasing numbers of people appear to have lost confidence in the two main political parties: Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the occupied West Bank, and Hamas, which seized power in Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007.
Since then, Israel – and, sometimes, Egypt too – has closed Gaza’s land crossings, sea and airspace. Constant military escalation and several wars between Israel and Hamas have shaped people’s lives over the past 20 years.
Critical humanitarian situation in Gaza
Without any political solution, life remains extremely difficult for Gazans. Aid organizations continue to criticize Israel for blocking more aid to Gaza. Israel’s civilian administration COGAT claimed the contrary. Report published last week.
On Sunday, Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, “strongly” condemned the obstruction of humanitarian operations by Gaza’s “de facto authorities” in a reference to Hamas.
Alakbarov’s statement said that a day earlier, armed men affiliated with Hamas reportedly forced their way into a food distribution point in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip. Hamas’s actions, he said, “put humanitarian workers at risk, intimidated workers delivering life-saving food aid, and disrupted life-saving humanitarian operations.” Hamas has denied the allegations.
Iyad Saleh, a student from Gaza who hopes to study abroad, wanted to be identified using only his middle and second names for fear of retribution. He belongs to a generation of young Palestinians who grew up in Gaza under Hamas rule, isolated due to the Israeli-imposed embargo. For him, Hamas’ presence on the ground means he needs to choose his words carefully, but he said a new start is desperately needed.
“I don’t care about political factions,” he said. “But I believe Gaza deserves better from Hamas and better than any other political faction in Palestine, because they have all failed.”
Edited by: Rob Mudge