What Is Hamas, the Terrorist Group Behind the Attacks in Israel?

Rockets are fired from Gaza toward Israel, in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 8, 2023. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

On Oct. 7, Israel—created in the aftermath of the Holocaust, where 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis—experienced the biggest single-day massacre of Jews since history’s darkest hour when Hamas launched rockets from Gaza into the Jewish state and invaded it, killing men, women, and children, raping women, and taking hostages.

Hamas terrorists dragged an elderly female Holocaust survivor in a wheelchair into Gaza.

All of this occurred as Jews were celebrating Simchat Torah, a Jewish holiday to mark the completion of reading the Torah and starting to read the Five Books of Moses again. For those not observing the festive occasion, Hamas fired shots at attendees of a music festival in Israel close to its border with Gaza, a geographical strip controlled by Hamas.

In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war to annihilate Hamas.

“All the places that Hamas hides in, operates from, we will turn them into ruins,” he said.

“Now is the time to obliterate Hamas’s military terror infrastructure,” said Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan.

What is Hamas?

Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and the Organization of American States.

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Hamas was created by Ahmed Yassin and six other Muslims in 1987, during the First Intifada in Israel. It is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, an extremist organization that has expressed hostility toward Israel and the West. Hamas stands for “Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya,” or “Islamic Resistance Movement.”

There are presently between 20,000 and 25,000 members of Hamas, according to the National Counterterrorism Center.

Hamas, whose terrorists wear a green headband, has a military as well as a political unit.

Hamas’s charter, published in 1988, calls for the Jewish State to be wiped off the map.

In 2017, Hamas published a “document of general principles and policies” stating that “a real state of Palestine is a state that has been liberated.”

Where is Hamas Based?

In 2007, two years after Israel withdrew from Gaza, a strip of land west of Israel and east of the Mediterranean, Hamas took power in 2006 after winning an election that has been contested for its lack of integrity.

Hamas is known for using Gazan civilian centers, including hospitals and schools, to launch rockets into Israel. The terrorist group uses civilians as human shields when targeted by Israeli forces.

Who Supports Hamas?

Hamas is one of the proxy groups of Iran, designated as a state sponsor of terrorism. Tehran is known for giving Hamas financial and other types of support. Iran helped Hamas plan the attacks and gave it the green light to execute them, The Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 8.

“Iran will certainly try to replenish Hamas losses in men and materiale just as they have with their terrorist arm, Hezbollah, in Lebanon. That is why Israel’s reoccupation of Gaza is necessary,” Matthew Brodsky, a senior fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy, told The Epoch Times.

“The painful lessons Israelis have learned in the previous decades is that the land-for-peace paradigm is a fool’s formula that makes war more likely.”

However, “Iran cannot replenish Hamas’s coffers and arsenal if the Israel Defense Forces control Gaza,” Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum, a Washington think tank, told The Epoch Times.

In addition to Iran, Qatar is a major supporter of Hamas.

Qatar “has been funding Hamas per agreement with Israel and other parties, funneling millions of dollars to the Islamist dictatorship and Iranian proxy with no oversight,” foreign policy analyst and human rights lawyer Irina Tsukerman told The Epoch Times.

“Politically, Qatar has openly backed Hamas, blaming the entire situation solely on Israel and fueling antisemitism and anti-Israel finger-pointing with its public position while lending political legitimacy to Hamas, a U.S.-designated international terrorist organization, even as Qatar has been designated as a major U.S. non-NATO ally and repeatedly praised by Republican and Democratic administrations for its cooperation on counterterrorism,” she said.

Hamas’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, resides in Qatar.

What’s Next?

Israel is expected to launch a ground invasion into Gaza. Currently, the IDF has conducted air strikes on Gaza, targeting Hamas infrastructure.

On Oct. 9, Mr. Netanyahu said the IDF operation against Hamas has only begun.

“The horrors that Hamas has committed have not been witnessed since the hours of ISIS,” he said.

Mr. Netanyahu told President Joe Biden that Israel has no choice but to launch a ground operation into Gaza.

“We have to go in. We can’t negotiate now,” he said, reported Axios, citing three Israeli and U.S. sources.

The number of hostages being held by Hamas is publicly unknown. President Biden said in a statement that “it is likely that American citizens may be among those being held by Hamas.”

Nonetheless, according to Ofer Bavly, an official at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago who comes from a diplomatic family, Hamas has the cell phones of hostages and can access their contacts, bank accounts and other sensitive information.

At the end of the day, “Israel can target the leadership and members of Hamas. It can also eliminate the infrastructure—buildings, finances, etc...—of Hamas,” said Mr. Pipes.

However, none of that will be easy, said Mr. Brodsky.

“Eliminating Hamas in Gaza will require a longer-term re-occupation of Gaza by Israel in order to ensure the roots, branches, and stems are fully removed and retweeted should the terrorist root take hold once again,” he said.

“The issue of Israeli hostages held by Hamas complicates this goal because military service is compulsory in Israel. These soldiers and civilians are everyone’s children,” Mr. Brodsky said. “The unfortunate reality is that Israel must conduct its military operations to destroy Hamas as if there are no hostages and conduct hostage rescue operations as if there is no war.

“This will be a painful and unbearable decision for Israelis to make, but the alternatives are worse. It is an unfortunate reality they must face as a sovereign state in the world’s most dangerous neighborhood.”