I mentioned last time that Hamas has neither tanks nor an air force. They also do not recognize that there are any rules for war, humanitarian or other. In this they differ from (moderate?) mainstream Islam. But even Muhammed was known for violating truce agreements when it was advantageous for him.
Hamas does not follow the theories of classical guerrilla warfare either. They do try to hide within the civilian population, or use civilians as shields against Israeli attacks. But classical guerilla warfare attacks the representatives or institutions of the government it is trying to overthrow. Hamas attacks Jews of any age or sex and justifies this behavior as an attack against “colonialism”. It doesn’t matter that such an accusation has no foundation in fact. The of Palestinian refugees is another example of historical lies, but one that has been repeated so often that many actually believe it. I’ll talk about UNRWA and Palestine in a future post.
Lacking the base for a peer to peer confrontation, (no tanks or planes etc.) Hamas conducts warfare by simply radicalizing some people and sending them to commit suicide by either blowing themselves uo or by murdering Jews using whatever means they can find. Some Hamas terrorists have murdered people using guns or knives. Some have used hatchets or screwdrivers. They compensate for their technological inferiority by emphasizing religious motivation and extolling “martyrs”. They exploit this asymmetry in weaponry by running an extremely well organized propaganda arm. It was no accident that the day after the October 7th massacre there were ‘spontaneous’ mass demonstrations in hundreds of cities all over the world. One characteristic of those displays was the slogan “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea”. Most participants in the demonstrations have/had no idea of what river, what sea, or even what freedom was the topic. But it did not stop them from waving Palestinian flags (or physically assaulting Jews).
Yesterday Hamas released 4 more hostages. For their propaganda films they dressed the 4 young women in army uniforms. They were all wearing civilian clothes when they were captured. In return, Israel freed 200terrorists (120 serving life sentences for murder). Interesting note: one was told where he would be released, and refused to go. He preferred to stay in an Israeli prison rather than return to an Arab held location where he expected to be assassinated by other Arabs.
Wetherhorn 