On the future – Zvi Bar'el in Haaretz:

‘But in its effort to participate in the Palestinian national struggle, Hamas adds in Article 27: “The day The Palestinian Liberation Organization adopts Islam as its way of life, we will become its soldiers, and fuel for its fire that will burn the enemies. Until such a day, and we pray to Allah that it will be soon, the Islamic Resistance Movement's stand towards the PLO is that of the son towards his father, the brother towards his brother, and the relative to relative.” And what happens after the enemy is vanquished? Will Hamas accept a compromise ideologically? The charter has no clear answer, and not by chance.
Hamas has held endless debates and negotiations with Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization, headed by Mahmoud Abbas. Many agreements have been signed and broken, partly due to clashes over appointments and jobs.
Just this past July, the heads of all the Palestinian factions met in El Alamein, Egypt. Once again they discussed a possible reconciliation and the establishment of a united governing authority. Once again there was no progress. The main reason, at least according to Abbas, was that Hamas wouldn't call for a nonviolent Palestinian struggle against Israel.
Relations between Hamas and the factions in the PLO, especially Fatah, are again being discussed by Palestinian politicians, journalists and commentators, against the backdrop of the current war that could end with Hamas no longer the dominant player in the Gaza Strip.’

(…)

‘He added that despite the pessimism he was hearing, there is still hope “that Hamas will complete an exchange for all the prisoners and detainees, during which the fighter and commander Marwan Barghouti will be released. Hopes for Fatah's revival, its restoration to its previous status and the end of the internal Palestinian rift lie with him.” If this happens, Rantawi wrote, Hamas will have handed Fatah “its greatest gift, allowing it to recover after years in a deep freeze.” Barghouti, who has been in Israeli prisons for 20 years for directing terror attacks, is the hot name now, someone known as the Palestinian Mandela. Some people believe he holds the magic solution for the PLO, the PA and the whole Palestinian problem, the man who should succeed 88-year-old Abbas.’

(…)

‘Barghouti was an author of the famous 2006 Prisoners’ Document in which it was agreed that Hamas would join the PLO and form a national unity government. In his latest interview, Barghouti said that this document would provide an element of any future agreement. There is no reason to think that the war in Gaza will change Barghouti’s take on Hamas and its role in revamping the PLO.
The war won't remove Hamas' political presence in the West Bank or East Jerusalem, even if the organization’s institutions can't operate or its members can't live in the West Bank.
A release of Barghouti couldn't guarantee that the PLO would be the true representative of the Palestinian people if Hamas isn't included. In the national debate, the war has provided Hamas with status that any future Palestinian leader can't ignore.’

Read the article here.

Barghati, once again, as a deus ex machina, who will resemble a Mandela for Palestine.
Hamas, in one form or another, will play a role when this war will be over.
Hamas is a religious-revolutionary movement, the revolution won’t stop, even in the unlikely case of the disappearance of Israel.

It’s still unclear who is the representative of the Palestinian people. This uncertainty, some Israelis mistakenly believed, would push the Palestinian cause in a forgotten corner of the world stage.
No, now we all know better.
The future of Gaza is bleak, but Hamas will flourish. Time is on the side of Hamas, Hamas thinks, and this might very well be the case.