From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
Hamas seeking role for its 10,000 police officers in Gaza ahead of disarmament talks; Israel regards them as terrorists
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Hamas is seeking to incorporate its 10,000 police officers into a new US-backed Palestinian administration for Gaza, sources say, a demand likely to be opposed by Israel as the terror group debates whether to surrender its arms. Israel regards all elements of Hamas, including the police, as components of a terrorist organization.
Hamas retains control of just under half of Gaza following an October ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump. The agreement ties further Israeli troop withdrawals to Hamas giving up its weapons.
The 20-point plan to end the war, now in its second phase, calls for the governance of Gaza to be handed to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a Palestinian technocratic body with US oversight that is meant to exclude Hamas.
In a letter to staff on Sunday, seen by Reuters, Gaza’s Hamas-run government urged its more than 40,000 civil servants and security personnel to cooperate with the NCAG but assured them it was working to incorporate them into the new government.
That would include the roughly 10,000-strong Hamas-run police force, four sources familiar with the matter say, a demand that has not been previously reported. Many of them have been patrolling Gaza as Hamas reasserts its grip in areas under its control. The force is armed, as are other members of the Hamas internal security forces, and its members sometimes wear uniforms.
It was not immediately clear whether Israel, which has adamantly rejected any Hamas involvement in Gaza’s future, would agree to the civil and security workers’ inclusion in the NCAG.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Israel has in the past said that some Hamas police officers are also members of the terror group’s military wing.
Israel draws no distinction between the military wing of Hamas and the terror group’s police and internal security forces.
According to the IDF, members of Hamas’s police and internal security forces participated in the October 7, 2023 terror onslaught, alongside terrorists from the military wing. During the war, Israel has repeatedly targeted and killed top commanders and other members of Hamas’s internal security forces, as well as its political wing.
The Times of Israel Community.