The mysterious head of Hamas’ military branch issued a rare statement endorsing the attack on the day Israelis woke up to the horrifying news that Palestinian squads had penetrated their nation, were killing soldiers and civilians, and were taking captured people back to Gaza.
The action, according to leader Muhammad Deif, was an outburst of rage at Israel’s persecution of Palestinians. He also warned his troops that it was the first step toward Israel’s annihilation while speaking from a covert position.
“Righteous warriors, now is the day to bury this evil foe. The time for it is over. In an audio clip shared on social media, he urged people to “kill them wherever you find them.” “Cleanse your country and your holy locations of this scum. Fight alongside the angels as you do so.
Hamas’s choice to attack was motivated by growing grievances, but the manner of that attack was influenced by a strong desire for vengeance that had grown over years of hostility – a desire to see Israel suffer.
By putting the battle inside Israeli towns on Saturday, Hamas shocked the world and dispelled the notion that Israel could contain its confrontation with the Palestinians to a remote location.
According to Tareq Baconi, author of a book about Hamas in Gaza, “what Hamas is doing is trying to flip the table back on the Israelis, saying you can’t forget about the Palestinian issue and we can undermine the myth of your invincibility.” “That in and of itself is a huge transformation in the Palestinian imagination, and I don’t think we can see or understand the implications of it yet.”
For more than ten years, Israel and Hamas’s battle in Gaza has frequently broken out into violent outbursts, but the magnitude of Hamas’s attack and its capture of roughly 150 Israelis have dramatically elevated the stakes on both sides.
Israeli forces are gathering at the Gaza border in preparation for a potential ground assault, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has pledged to destroy the organization. Leaders of Hamas have promised to continue fighting and have urged other anti-Israel groups to join them, raising the possibility of a broader conflict.
The group most likely to suffer the greatest loss in Gaza are the hundreds of civilians who have already died as a result of Israeli bombings since Saturday. If the leaders of Hamas gave Gaza’s civilians a cost in mind while making this decision, it is obvious that it had no impact.
“It speaks to the fact that these kinds of groups or movements have political objectives that they pursue, and the human cost will be a secondary consideration to that,” said Dana El Kurd, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Richmond.
Understanding how Hamas views itself in Palestinian history is necessary to decipher the organization’s motivations. Hamas was established as an Islamist organization with the goal of eliminating Israel and replacing it with an Islamic state in the late 1980s, during the first Palestinian Intifada, or revolt, against Israel.
Contrary to other Palestinian factions, its leaders have more recently acknowledged the potential of a two-state solution, the ideal conclusion to decades of Mideast peace attempts. Nevertheless, it has never sought to engage in negotiations with Israel.
Instead, it views Israel as having no right to exist and labels both itself and the Jewish state as colonial endeavors.
Hamas received harsh international criticism for placing suicide bombers in residential areas during the second Palestinian uprising that started in 2000. It is regarded as a terrorist organization by Israel, the US, and numerous other nations.
The Gaza Strip has been under the de facto control of Hamas since 2007, and Israel has enforced a harsh siege on the region, frequently in coordination with Egypt.