Two incidents on the Israel-Gaza border in recent weeks drew attention to a little-known Hamas unit dubbed the Restraining Force, established prior to the 2014 Gaza war with Israel. According to Israeli assessments, the unit numbers several hundred armed personnel who serve as a type of border patrol. The policing unit, as its name implies, is tasked with thwarting rocket attacks or terror attacks against Israeli targets by rogue organizations that could embroil Hamas in a war with Israel it does not want. Hamas regards the force as a guarantee of its own interests in controlling the conflict with Israel, allowing it to fan the flames some of the time and impose restraint at others.

Following the launch of mass Palestinian demonstrations along the Israeli border in March 2018, which resulted in Egyptian-mediated understandings between Hamas and Israel, Hamas tasked its armed wing — the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades — with forming a buffer between the border fence and the focal point of the demonstration. In other words, the armed Hamas wing that usually trains for war against the “Zionist enemy” was being ordered to defend the enclave’s border to ensure Israel’s security.

Hamas leaders gave their word to the Egyptian mediators that the Restraining Force would prevent protesters from breaching the border fence. At the same time, it was agreed that Hamas would allow protesters to express “popular resistance” under the forces’ watchful eyes. This arrangement allowed Hamas to deny it was selling out its jihadi ideology in return for an easing of Israel’s siege of Gaza or for its continued hold on power. Israel, for its part, agreed to the continued border demonstrations as long as they were kept "under control." The rival Fatah movement claims, to a large degree rightly so, that this deal is the Hamas-Israel version of the ongoing security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).

On July 11, Israel inadvertently killed Mahmoud Ahmad Sabri al-Adham, a member of the Restraining Force, after army lookouts mistakenly identified him as a Palestinian intent on carrying out a terror attack. The army was quick to apologize, explaining that two other Palestinians had approached the border perimeter and the Restraining Force member sent to keep them away was mistakenly identified as a terrorist and shot dead. “The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) unit carried out a shooting stemming from a misunderstanding,” the official statement said. It continued, “The incident will be investigated.” Hamas did not react.