What is Hamas in the context of Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel

The militant group defeated its political rival Fatah (which officially renounced violence) in the 2006 elections and took over the Gaza Strip, a  41-km-long and 10-km-wide territory between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, inhabited by about  2.3 million people in one of the most densely populated regions of the world. Since 2006, Hamas has been ruling the Gaza Strip without elections.

The United States and European Union have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization which believes in violence as a means to liberate Palestinian territories from Israel and propagates the eradication of the state of Israel.

According to American think tank Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Iran provides it with material and financial support, and Turkey reportedly harbours some of its top leaders.

Organisations like Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group with strong presence in southern Lebanon, also share a common goal with Hamas and hence during the ongoing conflict has fired a barrage of rockets into Israel inviting retalitaion from the latter. Hezbollah is also designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States and U.S.-allied Gulf Arab states including Saudi Arabia.

On Oct 7, 2023 (Saturday) when the Israelis were nearing the end of their seven-day-long Jewish festival of Sukkot, Hamas mounted a surprise attack on southern Israel launching over 5000 rockets decimating buildings, killing hundreds of people by the strikes and infiltrating on a festival across the Gaza border, taking innocent hostages of young women, men, children and families besides killing many.

Calling it their 9/11, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a war on Hamas, launching a massive offensive that killed many Palestinians.

According to CFR, Hamas’s military leader, Mohammed Deif, said the group undertook its assault because of Israel’s long-running blockade of Gaza, its occupation of Palestinian lands, and its alleged crimes against Muslims, including the desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

1965-born Mohammed Deif is now the supreme military commander of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. The United States Department of State added Deif to its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists on  Sept 8, 2015

A Hamas wall graffiti in Gaza. Photo: Wikipedia

How is Hamas funded

According to CFR, presently Iran is one of Hamas’s biggest benefactors, contributing funds, weapons, and training.

"Though Iran and Hamas briefly fell out after backing opposing sides in Syria’s civil war, Iran currently provides some $100 million annually [PDF] to Hamas, PIJ, and other Palestinian groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United States," it said. 

Turkey is said to be another backer of Hamas—and a critic of Israel—following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rise to power in 2002. Though Ankara insists it only supports Hamas politically, it has been accused of funding Hamas's terrorism, including through aid diverted from the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, said CFR.