Israel-Gaza conflict: who are Hamas and why are they attacking now?
From the moment the first group of black-clad fighters crossed the border fence from Gaza into southern Israel, it was clear that this was an extraordinary moment of success, however bloody and fleeting, for Hamas. It was also clear that they could not have done it alone.
How could this have happened? How could a terrorist group operating in a 140-square-mile patch of land, hemmed in by Israeli and Egyptian blockades and the Mediterranean, break through and launch a brazen and effective attack on one of the best-funded and most developed militaries in the Middle East?
The group, which has roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, was formed in 1987 at the beginning of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising. Then, as now, its stated aim was the establishment of an Islamic state in historical Palestine.
Over the years a call for the destruction of Israel was quietly dropped from the group’s manifesto. Yet since its foundation, Hamas has launched indiscriminate, bloody attacks on Israeli civilian targets, often describing them as retaliatory strikes for Israeli operations killing Palestinians.
In 2005, when Israel withdrew its troops from Gaza – 38 years after capturing it from Egypt in the Six Day War – Hamas rebranded itself as a social and political force, as well as an armed group. The organisation initiated social care programmes in Gaza and in 2006 won legislative elections. Soon after, it ousted the rival movement, Fatah, and has since in effect held absolute power.
Yet Hamas is not operating alone. Funds and technical knowledge from Iran and Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group also backed by Iran, helped bolster its armed wing, and supported production of its homemade rockets. Tehran has also supplied more advanced weapons via smuggling routes.
For years these routes included a network of tunnels that stretched as deep as 200ft underground. Some were laid with rail tracks, and were so large that Hamas used to smuggle in thoroughbred Arab horses for the Gazan riding club.
Many of the tunnels were destroyed over the years by waves of Israeli attacks. However, Israel has also intercepted ships carrying what it said were Iranian weapons bound for Gaza.
Before the May 2021 Gaza war, the Israeli military estimated that Hamas had about 30,000 fighters, including around 400 highly trained naval commandos, as well as stockpiles of about 7,000 rockets alongside anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles. It has also employed aerial and submarine drones. on Saturday released footage that appeared to show drone-dropped munitions targeting an Israeli tank, as well as a group of soldiers by a vehicle. Other footage showed a tank in flames.
Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas – who is based in Doha, Qatar – met Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in Iran in June. One of Khamenei’s advisers congratulated Palestinian fighters on the latest attacks, claiming that Iran would stand by them “until the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem”. State TV broadcast footage of members of Iran’s parliament chanting “death to Israel”.
Iran has also supported Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another armed group in Gaza that took part in the attacks alongside Hamas. Founded in the 1980s, Islamic Jihad also operates in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and is listed by the UK as a proscribed terror organisation.
Why did Hamas strike now? The attack followed months of heightened tensions with Israel along the Gaza borders, where groups of mainly young Palestinian men had been holding protests. Yet just a few days ago, these were ended by a Qatar-brokered truce.
It remains unclear what impact the domestic chaos in the Israeli government, battered by months of wrangling over the country’s supreme court, had on their preparedness.
But it is clear that the attack had been planned for a long time.
As Israeli officials like to point out, the country is surrounded by enemies. On its northern borders, in Syria and Lebanon, Hezbollah and groups allied to it wait almost within a stone’s throw of Israeli soldiers. But for Saturday afternoon, at least, those borders remained quiet.
The Sunday Times
More Coverage
Tories point finger at ‘faker’ Farage over members claim
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has accused Nigel Farage of faking a surge in Reform membership after the party claimed to have surpassed the Conservatives for the first time.
How neighbourhoods get top vote as homebuyers hunt for ‘their people’
A real estate company is offering prospective homeowners a feature that, for many, really matters: a breakdown of how their future neighbours voted.