Hamas overwhelmed Israel’s border in October with something like a conventional military maneuver. Now, it acts as a guerrilla force, its fighters often disguised as civilians.

An analysis of battlefield videos released by Hamas and interviews with three Hamas members and scores of Israeli soldiers

Using civilian homes and infrastructure — including medical facilities, U.N. offices and mosques — to conceal fighters, tunnel entrances, booby-traps and ammunition stores;
Ambushing Israeli soldiers with small groups of fighters dressed as civilians, as well as using civilians, including children, to act as lookouts;

The video seems to show Hamas fighters, their faces blurred, sitting on patterned mats as they plan the attack. They use pen, paper and a digital tablet to draw simplistic maps detailing where they want to plant a set of roadside mines.
“We ask, O Lord, for the ambush to achieve its goals — let us kill your enemies, the Jews,” the narrator says.

  • Flying SquidMEnglish
    39•2 months ago

    Just because Israel is committing horrific crimes in Gaza doesn’t mean that Hamas is good. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” is the a big part of the reason why the US is allied with Israel in the first place.

    Hamas was bad for the people Gaza, which is exactly why Netanyahu enabled and supported them in the first place.

    https://www.thenation.com/article/world/why-netanyahu-bolstered-hamas/

    Obviously, Israel is far worse for the people of both Gaza and the West Bank, but Israel’s genocide and their apartheid does not make Hamas good and their idea of Palestinian liberation is a theocratic form of “liberation” that should not be supported.

      • Flying SquidMEnglish
        12•2 months ago

        That’s a different issue entirely. I was responding to the person that claims they are a national liberation movement. They aren’t, because a theocracy is not liberation. Maybe they are Palestine’s only hope right now, but that doesn’t mean they are good, that means that no one who should be fighting for Palestine is doing so.

        I assume no one here would be calling ISIS a national liberation movement if they were the only ones fighting Israel. At least I hope not.

    • @LinkerbaanEnglish
      -6•2 months ago

      Hamas is objectively the best out of all these parties. By a long shot. Hamas has tried a peaceful march in 2018. Israel is the party that only wants to speak violence.

      Condemn resistance fighters against Genocide all you want, it’s just posturing.

      Also I winder why why Palestinians don’t want to form a liberal democracy while being Genocided by a liberal democracy with full support of all other liberal democracies.

      • Flying SquidMEnglish
        2•2 months ago

        The best out of a bunch of bad things isn’t a good thing.

        • @LinkerbaanEnglish
          -5•2 months ago

          So what’s a good thing? Us fully supporting them being Genocided with weapons?

          Moral highgrounding against resistance groups is really easy when we’re the ones responsible for their Genocide

          • Flying SquidMEnglish
            2•2 months ago

            Nice whataboutism, but no, aiding a genocide is also not a good thing.

            Believe it or not, there doesn’t need to be a good side and a bad side to everything.

            Israel is bad. Hamas is bad. The U.S. is bad. All of these things can be true without any contradictions.

            You can call them freedom fighters or whatever you like. They are still theocrats who want a theocracy that will oppress the Palestinian people.

            • @LinkerbaanEnglish
              -6•2 months ago

              Hamas has already agreed to hold elections after the Genocide is over.

              • Flying SquidMEnglish
                6•2 months ago

                Why on Earth would you believe a bunch of theocrats? They didn’t hold an election for decades. Most Palestinians in Gaza weren’t even old enough to vote, if they were even alive, when Hamas last held an election. And no, that’s not Israel’s fault. Israel, despite all of the horrible things they were doing in Gaza, never did anything to prevent Hamas from holding an election. They didn’t because they don’t want democracy, they want a theocracy. Just read their charter.

                Again, fighting Israel doesn’t make you good. It just makes you a group fighting a bad thing. Similarly, the Azov Brigade is fighting for Ukrainian freedom from Russia, but they’re still a bunch of Nazis, and I am sure that the Jewish president of Ukraine is not happy about having to work with them. He’s doing it anyway because they’re necessary to fight Russia. They aren’t suddenly good just because they are helping Ukraine fight for their freedom.

                Iran might go into a fight with Israel. Are you going to start praising Iran if that happens?

                • @LinkerbaanEnglish
                  -5•2 months ago

                  Hamas has put their promise to hold elections on paper when a Palestinian state is established as part of the ceasefire deal.

                  Hamas likely won’t be a great government party. Resistance groups never really make great peacetime leaders. Just like with the ANC. However they are needed to get to the start of an independent country. The PA sure isn’t making the Palestinians safer.

                  Iran would be much more normalized too if we didn’t keep overthrowing their government every few decades. And israel stops assassinating their leaders.

                  If we stop meddling eventually a population ejects the wartime party and normalizes as we see with South Africa right now. And that also takes decades but it has to start somewhere. But putting the cart before the horse is not how this works.