Giving Up on the Government, Not on Power: Hamas 2026 - A Readiness Status Report | Baruch Yedid

Baruch Yedid analyzes Hamas's situation in 2026: the organization is militarily weakened but is changing its control model in the Strip. Hamas is giving up the formal government in favor of a technocratic committee, while maintaining influence through security mechanisms, taxation, bureaucracy, and power networks. The analysis describes a strategy of adaptation rather than empowerment, while preserving its status as the central political actor.

Baruch Yedid analyzes Hamas's situation in 2026, three years into the war. The organization has suffered a severe blow to its military, leadership, and infrastructure, but is not giving up control of the Strip—it is changing its control model. Hamas is willing to transfer civil administration to a technocratic committee, but maintains influence through integrating its people into government ministries, the blue police, taxation mechanisms, and local power networks. The analysis describes a strategy of adaptation rather than empowerment: Hamas operates "from the bottom up" to preserve its status as the central political actor, while avoiding direct responsibility for the Strip's reconstruction. An Israeli security source is quoted saying that "Hamas's capabilities have been significantly diminished."