Strung across chaotic streets and through mazes of narrow alleys, the iconic green flags of the Islamic Resistance Movement, better known as Hamas, festoon the gray cement-block buildings.

In the streets of the Jabalya refugee camp, where Hamas was born a quarter of a century ago, the public trappings of ascendant Islamist power are impossible to miss.

After prayers, men old enough to remember the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, which began a decades-long occupation of the Gaza Strip, claim Hamas has finally won a fight with Israel and should now march on Tel Aviv.