Hamas and Israel

Why in the News?

The ongoing battle of Israel-Palestine is seen as unprecedented one since the establishment of Israel in May 1948 and comes exactly 14 months after the truce that ended the brief confrontation between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in 2022.

Who are Hamas?

1. The First Intifada (1987-93) is a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
2. Hamas or Islamic Resistance Movement, was founded in 1987 as a political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood after the First Intifada.
3. This group has a major influence inside Palestinian territories, particularly in the Gaza Strip and its armed wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades have carried out several rocket attacks against Israel, mostly in the southern part of the country.
4. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, particularly after the defeat of Fatah, the political rival of Hamas in the 2006 elections.
5. Post-withdrawal witnessed frequent outbreaks of violence where Hamas also developed expertise in digging sophisticated military tunnels that have become conduits for cross-border infiltration.

What is Hamas’ position on Israel?

1. Hamas has considered its main goal as the destruction of Israel.
2. The Israel-Egypt peace treaty signed in 1979 following the Camp David Accords of 1978 was strongly condemned by Hamas.
3. The group also disapproves any kind of normalisation between Israel and other countries in the region, including the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan, which were parties to the US-mediated Abraham Accords signed in late 2020.
4. Hamas proposed acceptance of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders in 2017, but failed to a political breakthrough with the Israelis.
5. Hamas still refuses to recognise Israel.

Is Hamas a terrorist organisation?

1. Hamas has been recognised as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation by the US and European Union (EU).
2. This would gain further traction with the international community to go for  a wider designation of Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
3. But the Palestinians have a similar accusation that Israel’s military operations as acts of “terrorism” and war crime as its policy of encouraging and abetting Jewish settlements in the West Bank as a flagrant violation of international law.

What could have triggered Hamas to launch its invasion on October 7?

1. Stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks with no serious efforts to resolve the longstanding dispute accompanied by moderate Arab countries increasingly normalising ties with Israel.
   1. It has given an impression that the historical Arab-Israeli conflict is now more of an Israel-Palestinian issue. 
   2. Hamas wanted to bring the ‘ignored’ Palestinian cause back in the spotlight.
   3. They also wanted to prove that the security of the Middle East, let alone Israel, cannot be guaranteed without settlement of the Palestinian issue.
2. Most hardline steps taken by the present Israelian government such as,
   1. Expansion of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land
   2. Possibility of annexing part of the West Bank.
   3. Israel’s minister for national security visited the Al-Aqsa mosque complex in Jerusalem and declared that Israel was “in charge” of the disputed site that is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. 
   4. The attack codenamed as “Al-Aqsa Flood” can be a symbolical indication by the Hamas to the Israelis and the international community that Jerusalem is undividable.
3. Growing perception among Palestinians that Israel’s diplomatic recognition and political acceptance are on the rise in the wider Middle Eastern region. 
   1. Normalisation of ties after signing of the Abraham Accords.
   2. Possibility of Israel and Saudi Arabia signing a normalisation agreement backed by the US has been growing.
   3. The Hamas attack could be its plan to derail the probable Israeli-Saudi agreement by provoking the inevitable heavy retaliation and drawing regional and international condemnation.

Do the attacks show a failure of Israel’s intelligence mechanisms?

1. The surprise attack by Hamas is a considerable blow to the reputation of Israel’s intelligence apparatus, including its cyber capabilities, which are admired by countries around the world.
2. The reason can be ignorance or underestimation of red flags or warnings by the Israelis or Hamas has gained expertise in evading Israeli technical surveillance.
3. The militants have also shown the ability to operate in the air (paragliding), on land, and at sea, all at the same time.
4. The attack episode will compel Israel to re-look at, and re-strategise its policies relating to counter-terrorism, counter-intelligence, surveillance, and collecting both signal intelligence (SIGINT) and human intelligence.