In the contemporary world, terrorism is an issue that has been a challenge to many nations, and safety strategies implemented within different countries are futile in eradicating this practice. According to Phillips (2019), terrorists are intelligent individuals who are trained in using different attack approaches such as bombing to kill civilians. They also use force to frighten civilians and destroy properties. This paper aims at describing Hamas, which is a terrorist group that uses unique attack approaches to meet their targeted interests.
Description of Hamas’s Location
Hamas terrorist group is located in the Gaza Strip and regions of the West Bank (Hroub, 2018). The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades entails Hamas’s military wing that is responsible for attacking anti-Israelites within the Palestinian territories and in Israel. The group is said to be an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood that originated in the Gaza Strip in the late twentieth century.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Objectives
Hamas is a terrorist group that has been conducting criminal activities in Palestinian territories and Israel since the 1990s. The group is funded by Iran, and its key regions of operation are Qatar, West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Iran, and Egypt (Counter Extremism, 2020) . Hamas aims to revenge for its members who were murdered during different forms of social conflicts. The group also focuses in fighting to gain political power so as to control the biggest number of people and force them to adapt their ways. Hamas leaders also fight to warn those who try to interfere with the group’s activities. For instance, when Israel attempts to block Hamas' ways of diverting shipments for their use and destroy their construction of underground tunnel network, Hamas fight back in order to build more tunnels, which they use to attack different states.
Methods of Attack
Hamas is able to carry out diverse attacks because of adequate funding that it receives in form of military support from Qatar and Iran (Counter Extremism, 2020) . The funding is usually above $100 million, but it varies between periods. Most of the provisions of Hamas’s social services are provided to manipulate Palestinians to support the group. Moreover, Hamas tries to acquire more income through smuggling tunnels that it has developed beneath the Gaza-Egypt border. Donations from the global Palestinian diaspora also play a better part in Hamas' funding (Phillips, 2019). The group mostly uses suicide bombings and shootings as the main methods of attacking civilians (Sela-Shayovitz & Dayan, 2019). Suicide bombings was highly witnessed in the 1990s and early 2000s. The bombings collectively killed hundreds of individuals. In 2007, the group conducted approximately 40% of the suicide attacks during the second Intifada, which resulted in more than one thousand deaths of civilians (Counter Extremism, 2020) . The other 60% of the suicide attacks were initiated by other terrorist groups such ISIS and Boko Haram. Khaled Meshaal, a superior member of the group, indicated that suicide bombing had been banned and pretended to warn the members against implementing it. Nonetheless, in 2016, a music video was observed imploring the return of bombing attack method, and this was aired on Hamas television.
Hamas has different tactics for implementing suicide bombing. For instance, they can rig a car to explode near a public place such as a restaurant. The group also dispatches suicide bomber to drive up alongside the targeted public vehicles such as buses. Hamas can also urge suicide bomber to blow up during public events such as church crusades, meetings, and launches, whereby they kill thousands of individuals. Other tactics that the group utilizes include rocket attacks, kidnapping, and mortar attacks. For instance, in 2008, Hamas launched over 3,000 Qassam rockets and planned about 2,500 mortar attacks that were targeted at Israel (Counter Extremism, 2020) . In 2011, the terrorist group kidnapped about twenty Palestinian civilians and 30 members of Gaza’s political party (Counter Extremism, 2020) . Additionally, Hamas hold some Israeli citizens captive in order to stop the government from attacking their members. Mengistu is one of the captives who was alleged to have been released, whereby the Hamas maintains that he ran through a tunnel to Egypt. Nonetheless, he was suspected to be kept captive. Hamas has continued to call for violence against Israel and continue to perform different forms of terror attacks in the nation. The more the Israel forces arrest the Hamas group suspects for planting explosives in their region, the more the Hamas continue to plan distinct forms of terror attacks.
Targeted Interests and Activities
Hamas’s authority supports all forms of legitimate resistance because they believe that they exist to end all types of oppression and injustice, especially imposed by Israel. Therefore, the terrorist group believes that it is entitled to resist in surrendering their weapons to be able to strategize their methods of attacks. The group has tried to gain political power by employing violent tactics against Israel's military and targeting civilians through suicide bombings. Hamas launched a political document that called for arm resistance to assist in liberating its strategy and try to free all of Palestine from the river to the sea (Counter Extremism, 2020) . Hamas’s leaders are interested in revenge for their members who were massacred during their operations. In a real life experience, the group killed eight people in Israel through a suicide bomb on April 6, 1994. Hamas’s leaders indicated that this was an activity that aimed at responding to the 29 Palestinians who were murdered by radical Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein at the Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque.
How Hamas Uses Total War/Unrestricted Terrorism Concept to Their Advantage
Hamas group is engaged in politics. It manipulates individuals through providing social services, thus winning more votes. For instance, the group worn the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006. Additionally, Hamas work towards establishing the unity government to attract people and cover their lousy image. For example, Hamas had once created a Palestinian Authority unity government with Fatah. This was during early 2006, but there was a continued conflict between the two. Therefore, Hamas expelled Fatah from the Gaza Strip in 2007 (Counter Extremism, 2020) . Hamas group initiates unnecessary political arguments with its rivals to trigger war. When the opportunity arises, the group takes advantage in attacking the civilians in the name of solving the conflict experienced. For instance, this terrorist group is accountable for thousands of Qassam rockets fired at Israel towns. Moreover, the group conducted a cross-border raid in 2006, which resulted in a five-year arrest of Gilad Shalit. In 2014, Hamas facilitated three political wars with Israel (Counter Extremism, 2020) .
The terrorist group also tries to come up with a political document that would accept its collaboration with other states. The document is also aimed at denouncing dangerous weapons. Such a step was observed in 2017 when the group unveiled a systematic political document that allowed a Palestinian state in Gaza Strip (Counter Extremism, 2020) . However, the same document refused to recognize Israel and refused to declare Hamas’s commitments to violence. Hamas has refused to disarm, and its authority continues to encourage the weapon resistance act. Additionally, the group indicates no signs of denouncing the establishment of an Islamist state. Hamas believes that they have their say, and they have the right to defend themselves from various political enemies. Thus, Hamas support their shooting operations and encourage their perpetrators. The leaders take their time in congratulating the heroic operations that the members participate in and support them to continue until their goals are realized. In this perspective, the group celebrates the martyrs that have ascended via the set operations and indicate that their pure blood will be the fuel for escalating the Intifada.
References
Counter Extremism. (2020). Hamas . New York. Retrieved from Counter Extremism Project: https://www.counterextremism.com/threat/hamas
Hroub, K. (2018). Gaza under Hamas: From Islamic Democracy to Islamist Governance, by Björn Brenner. New York. 83-84
Phillips, B. J. (2019). Foreign Terrorist Organization designation, international cooperation, and terrorism. International Interactions , 45 (2), 316-343.
Sela-Shayovitz, R., & Dayan, H. (2019). Female Palestinian terrorists: The role of the Intifada period and the terrorism context. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism , 1-18.
