Hamas may use Israeli air strikes and deaths to get civilians to support their cause, says Aussie expert

There are fears Israeli air strikes on Gaza — which have killed nearly 3000 Palestinians including children — could be working in Hamas’s favour.

Hamas militants might use Israeli air strikes and civilian deaths to drive ordinary Palestinians to take up arms and support the militant cause against advancing Israeli forces.

Award-winning lecturer in international relations Dr Tobias Ide said radicalisation of both Hamas and Gaza populations had developed over recent years.

He said there had been evidence impoverished Palestinians in Gaza, while they did not share Hamas goals, had been drawn in because they were either desperate for work and income, seeking favour or revenge.

It is the latter that could see Hamas and its Al-Qassam Brigade ranks or affiliate Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighters swell beyond their reported 40,000 armed militants.

More than 2750 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 10,000 wounded by Israeli air strikes. Picture: AFP

Dr Ide, with Murdoch University in Perth, said the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million Palestinians would not be willing to actively fight but the risk for some would have now increased.

“So their brother, mother, sister, uncle, wife whatever had been killed during an air strike or died in hospital because there was no power and they put the blame on Israel and then joined or wanted to do something for Hamas,” he said.

“There is an omnipresent threat in war zones, from Colombia to the Philippines from Sri Lanka to Kenya to Palestine that if someone is killed in a military operation there is a chance one in 10 or 20 relatives or friends radicalises as a response to that.

“That means with the escalation of this conflict, there is indeed a risk there is a larger pool of people aggrieved by the blockade of Gaza and the military strikes who are now more willing to join Hamas.”

Distraught Palestinian men on the steps of a hospital following an Israeli air strike on buildings in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP

The concept of “Nakba” – meaning “catastrophe” and referring to the carve up of Palestine and civilian displacement from the 1948 creation of Israel – also held strong and was being used as a recruitment tool by Hamas.

“If you travel through the West Bank you still come across many families where the grandparents still have the keys to their old homes as a memory and symbol they intend to return at some stage,” Dr Ide said.

“Some of the parents and grandparents died but the children or grandchildren still keep the keys even though in many cases their houses don’t exist anymore.”

Hamas has ordered Palestinians not leave Gaza, as ordered by Israel, which is suspected of wanting to permanently seize territory to nullify potential future attacks.

Originally published as Hamas may use Israeli air strikes and deaths to get civilians to support their cause, says Aussie expert