Palestinian armed groups facing Hamas in Gaza and supported by Israel and the United States.

Earlier this month, Al-Astal smiled when I asked him if he had spoken with the Americans about the future, and he told me that he would share the details with me soon.

I asked him if those conversations had left him happy.

“Yes,” he replied with a big smile.

Hussam Al-Astal previously worked in the Palestinian Authority. His group is small – perhaps a dozen fighters – but he appears increasingly confident, manning a well-equipped tent city near Khan Yunis.

“Let’s just say that this is not the time to answer that question,” Al-Astal smiled when I asked him if Israel was providing him with that. But we coordinated with the Israeli side to bring food, weapons and everything.”

I asked him how he paid for those things.

He replied: “People from all over the world support us.” “Not everything comes from Israel. They say that Israel is the only one that supports us and that we are agents of Israel. We are not agents of Israel.”

“He told me that dozens of families had come to live in their new location — inside the yellow line that demarcates the area currently controlled by Israel under the ceasefire agreement — and that more people were arriving every week.

“We are the day after New Gaza,” he told me. “We have no problem cooperating with the Palestinian Authority, with the Americans, and with anyone who sides with us. We are the alternative to Hamas.”

But many Gazans – including those disillusioned with Hamas – are dissatisfied with the new power gained by these small, divided armed groups.

Saleh Suwaidan, who currently lives in Gaza City, said, “Only a small number of men who have no religion, belief, or morals joined these criminals.” “The Gaza government has governed us, and although there are many burdens on civilians, any government is better than gangs.”

Zaher Dawla, another resident of Gaza City, said, “These groups that cooperate with the occupation (Israel) are the worst that the war has produced.” “Joining them is not only dangerous, it is high treason.”

Muntaser Masoud, 31, told me that he joined the new tent city of Astal two months ago with his wife and four children, and crossed the Yellow Line at night to avoid Hamas and coordinate with Israeli forces.

But he said that his relatives who remained in Hamas-controlled areas criticized the decision.

“They were harassing us, saying what we were doing was wrong and had no future,” he told me. “I tell them that they are the ones that worry us, because they live outside the yellow line and anyone from Hamas can hide next to them, and they can be bombed.”

While we were talking on the phone, our conversation was repeatedly interrupted by the sound of heavy gunfire around him.

He explained that “the (Israeli) army is located nearby.” “But that’s not a problem because we know we’re not the target.”

Several armed groups now confront Hamas, with complex and overlapping relationships.

For example, Abu Shabab has been accused of looting aid trucks sent to Gaza during the war, and reports in Israel have indicated that two of its members had previous ties to ISIS.

“What’s wrong with that?” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this last month in response to reports of his country’s secret support for armed factions. “It’s a good thing. It saves soldiers’ lives.”

He added that revealing this information “only helped Hamas.”

“Netanyahu has insisted that Gaza will not be ruled by Hamas or its rival, the Palestinian Authority. Under the US peace plan, a non-political, technocratic committee of Palestinians will run Gaza in the short term under international supervision, until PA reforms are completed.

But a senior Palestinian official rejected Al-Astal’s claims that his fighters would form part of the future police force there.

Major General Anwar Rajab, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority security forces, told the BBC that there could not be a widespread integration of men from armed groups in Gaza, some of which are supported by Israel.

“Israel can demand the integration of these militias due to its own political and security considerations,” he said in an interview in the West Bank city of Ramallah. He added, “But Israel’s demands do not necessarily benefit the Palestinians. Israel wants to continue imposing its control in one way or another over the Gaza Strip.”

The question of what will happen to the new militias in Gaza under permanent peace remains unanswered.

Israel’s decision to support its enemy’s enemies in Gaza is a sign that it has not learned from history, according to Michael Milstein, the former head of Palestinian affairs at Israeli military intelligence.

“This is the same risk that the Americans took in Afghanistan 30 years ago,” he said. “They supported the Taliban against the Soviets, and then the Taliban took the weapons they received from the Americans and used them against the Americans.”

He stated that Israel is now relying on groups with a questionable past in the hope that they will provide a political, social and ideological alternative to Hamas.

“There will come a time when they will turn their guns – the guns they got from Israel – against the IDF,” he said.

In addition to helping to weaken Hamas, Israel’s support for armed groups may facilitate the division of Palestinian opposition to Israel and maintain its influence inside Gaza once its forces withdraw.

Some critics point out that arming disparate local groups will make it difficult to persuade Hamas to lay down its arms and for international forces to take over the role of ensuring security in Gaza.

But the danger for Israel is that the groups it helps arm will one day become the new enemy it must confront.

Forty years ago, he encouraged an extremist Islamic organization in Gaza to counter the growing power of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

That organization became Hamas.

*Additional reporting by Naomi Scherbel-Ball, Samantha Granville and the Gaza team of independent contributors.

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