Palestinian officials in Lebanon consider the Hamas movement’s decision to establish a new unit under the name of the Vanguards of the Al-Aqsa Flood, as an effort to increase its popularity in the Palestinian camps and enhance its role at the expense of the Fatah movement, which has long been seen as the most prominent Palestinian faction in the country. Palestinian sources close to Fatah believe that Hamas wants to exploit the war in Gaza to increase its popularity in the Palestinian refugee camps, in light of the great sympathy it enjoys after the Oct. 7.