The Hamas death cult has taken advantage of the October 2025 cease-fire with Israel to rebuild, rearm and consolidate its grip on the half of Gaza under its control.

With Israel and the United States focused on the war with Iran, Hamas has expanded its totalitarian control over the people of Gaza, brutally punishing and even executing political opponents it labels collaborators with Israel.

Alarmingly, the UN Population Fund reports a sharp rise in child marriages in Gaza, as Hamas militants force young girls to marry them.

Organized rape and sexual slavery are also reportedly endemic.

Hamas maintains control of aid distribution, tax collection, commerce, schools and hospitals, all of which give it total leverage over life and death in Gaza.

Do you want to get paid or feed your family this week? You better do and say whatever is expected of you by the local Hamas functionary.

Some 50,000 Hamas-paid administrators manage the daily operations of Gaza, and the al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas’ military wing) has rebuilt its troop levels, which now number 27,000 members.

Per Israel’s Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, the terror group is also smuggling arms from Egypt and manufacturing weapons in Gaza itself.

What all this means is that no one should expect Hamas’ leaders to let the cease-fire plan advance to Phase Two — “demilitarization, technocratic governance and reconstruction” — anytime soon.

Who’s going to make them? These thugs’ brutal leadership style is built on utter disregard for human life, and the misery and death of their people is a weapon Hamas wields in its public-relations war abroad.

Where are the Arab nations? Why aren’t Egypt, Saudi Arabia and UAE helping to build a Gazan power structure without Hamas?

These nations don’t hesitate to criticize when Israel defends itself from attacks but refuses to do anything to make life better even for Gazans, let alone Israelis.

Jerusalem is in a hard place. It cannot allow the perpetrators of Oct. 7 to remain in power on its border, but dislodging Hamas from its tunnel network requires an intense military operation for which it might be difficult, if not impossible, to rally sufficient political support.

No country would abide the continued existence of a terrorist-run neighboring territory, but Israel is expected to live next door to a group that has vowed to repeat the horrors of Oct. 7 if it can.

Just as Iran is a threat to regional harmony, its proxy Hamas will never permit the Palestinians to coexist with Israel.

Yes, the Iran war takes precedence. Indeed, Tehran’s defeat will serve as a major blow to Hamas.

But there’s another job yet to be finished — in Gaza: At some point, Israel (and the United States) will have to reckon with this terrorist group, which wants to drive the Jews of Israel into the sea, and will pursue that goal with maximum savagery.

Neither Israel nor the world can allow even the mere possibility of another Oct. 7 slaughterfest.