By Mike Smith

GAZA CITY — Their faces covered with black balaclavas, AK-47s in hand, militants from Hamas's armed wing have become a familiar presence in the Gaza Strip — and for many that remains a key problem.

Hamas, the Islamist movement that has run the Gaza Strip for a decade, has been seeking to end its long feud with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah, but its powerful armed wing may prove to be a dealbreaker.

The Palestinian Authority is due to take control of Gaza by Friday under a reconciliation agreement signed in October, but Hamas is flatly refusing to disarm.

Security control could derail the long-awaited accord, with Abbas warning he will not accept a situation akin to Hezbollah in Lebanon, where the Shiite group's militia wields major power.

"The weapons of the resistance are a red line that is non-debatable," Khalil Al-Hayya, deputy head of Hamas in Gaza, said at a press conference on Monday.

"These weapons will be moved to the West Bank to fight the (Israeli) occupation. It is our right to resist the occupation until it ends."

The size and strength of Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, has been a source of speculation.

Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007 in a near civil war with Fatah, does not comment on such details.

Al-Qassam membership has been estimated at 20,000-25,000 — roughly the size of the Czech Republic's active military personnel, according to figures cited by the World Bank.

Before a devastating 2014 war with Israel, militant groups in Gaza were believed to have a total of some 10,000 rockets, including 6,000 for Hamas, an Israeli military analysis at the time said.

Most were short- and medium-range rockets with a range of between 20 and 45 km, the analysis said.

But there were also a number of longer-range rockets that could reach up to 200 km, it said.

It is thought that around half to two-thirds of the rockets were fired during the war, said Neri Zilber of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who often writes on defense issues.

Zilber said it is believed that rocket arsenals in Gaza have since been rebuilt to around 10,000 — though with a greater focus on shorter-range weapons since they are more difficult for Israel's missile-defense system to shoot down.

Beyond those and small arms, militants in the Gaza Strip are thought to have other weapons including rocket-propelled grenades, he said.

Ghassan Khatib, a former PA minister, said basic differences between Fatah and Hamas on how to pursue the Palestinian cause — diplomatically or through armed resistance — would prevent reconciliation unless overcome.

"So long as we have these differences, the division will remain," he said. — AFP