Countering the Threat of Hamas: Strategies and Implications

This assignment examines the strategies needed to counter the activities of Hamas, a significant non-state actor in the Middle East. Given its impact on regional security, particularly concerning Israel, this analysis emphasizes intelligence-driven approaches for understanding Hamas' operations. The focus is on developing comprehensive surveillance and defense mechanisms against potential threats posed by the organization, including military and cyber dimensions. Additionally, it explores international collaboration to cut off logistical and financial support from state and non-state actors sympathetic to Hamas. The assignment also considers psychological resilience within civilian populations vulnerable to terrorist activities, emphasizing educational campaigns to counteract radicalization efforts targeting youth. Finally, it reviews case studies such as Israel's Operation Protective Edge in 2014 to assess the effectiveness of past military interventions against Hamas.

Running head: TERRORIST GROUP CASE STUDY
The Hamas Organization
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Executive Summary
In this report the location, goals, ideologies and organizational structure of the Hamas
Organization is discussed. One myth of Dr. Gary Lafree is chosen and applied to the Hamas
Organization. Five strategies mentioned in Bill Banff’s Module 4 lecture are attrition,
intimidation, provocation, spoiling, or outbidding. The strategy intimidation is applied to the
Hamas Organization. The strategic logic, tactics, common weapons of the Hamas Organization is
discussed. The Hamas Organization’s main goal is to free Palestine from the occupancy of Israel
and the Organization has conducted air-strikes and suicide bombs attack on civilians to achieve
this goal. The organization markets itself using public campaigns and uses media strategically.
The organization has targeted schools for the process of recruitment. The strategies adopted to
combat the Hamas organization are discussed. The intelligence wing of a country plays an
important role to combat this organization.

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
1. The name of the Group................................................................................................................1
The location of the Hamas Organization.....................................................................................2
The main goals of Hamas Organization.......................................................................................2
2. 9 myths of Dr. Gary Lafree..........................................................................................................2
Application of this myth to Hamas Organization........................................................................2
3. Ideology of Hamas Organization.................................................................................................2
4. Organizational Structure of Hamas Organization........................................................................4
5. Five strategies mentioned in Bill Banff’s Module 4 lecture are attrition, intimidation,
provocation, spoiling, or outbidding................................................................................................5
Strategic logic and the strategy that best describes Hamas Organization....................................5
The tactics of Hamas Organization..............................................................................................5
The common weapons, targets or tactics used by the Hamas Organiztaion................................6
How does Hamas Organization use the media?...........................................................................6
How does Hamas organization market or recruit?.......................................................................7
6. How Hamas Organization can be countered...............................................................................8
7. Reference Lists............................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
1. The name of the Group
Hamas was originated in the Muslim Brotherhood Movement of Egypt. The legal
registration of the organization took place in Israel in the year 1978. This group was established
in the year 1987. In the year 1988, opposed the existence of Israel and published the Islamic
Covenant (Gerges 2010).
The location of the Hamas Organization
The location of operation for Hamas Organization is Palestinian Territories. In modern
day, Hamas operates in Iran and Syria. The Hamas Organization is a large militant Islamic group
of Palestine. The Islamic Resistance Movement has the Arabic acronym of Hamas (Gerges
2010).
The main goals of Hamas Organization
The Hamas Organization had a short-term as well as long-term goal. The short-term goal
of the Hamas Organization was to free Palestine as well as modern-day Israel from the
occupation of Israel (Berti 2015).The long-term aim of Hamas Organization was to focus on the
establishment of an Islamic state from the River of Jordan extending to the Mediterranean Sea
(Gerges 2010).
2. 9 myths of Dr. Gary Lafree
One myth that is selected from Dr. Gary Lafree’s 9 myths related to terrorism is the myth
that every corner of the world is affected terror attack.

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Application of this myth to Hamas Organization
This myth is not applicable to Hamas Organization because terrorist attack of Hamas
organization is concentrated geographically. In the timeframe of June 2004 to July 2014, the
organization has killed 26 civilians and two foreign nationals in Israel by using mortar fire and
Palestinian rockets. The organization has attacked soldiers and civilians of Israel to create the
state of Islamic Palestine in between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea (Adamson
2016).
3. Ideology of Hamas Organization
The Hamas Organization believes that Palestine is a kingdom that is endowed to
Palestinians by God. The organization has strong ideology and goal to establish a Sunni Islamic
State in entire Palestine region. They plan to free Palestine from the occupation of Israel. The
leaders of Hamas Organization have claimed to accept a truce with Israel; the organization wants
to accept the truce only if voters of Palestine approve the withdrawal of Israel to the pre-1967
borders and a Palestine state can be developed in certain parts of Palestine. However, the people
of Gaza consider the Hamas Organization responsible for fostering law and order in Gaza after
the organization won the election. The Organization has adopted a religious ideology and
philosophy of Nationalism towards Palestine (Sayigh 2010).
Individual grievances that has impact on recruits or members of Hamas Group
Individual grievances like the grievance against the Western world, the wide gap between
the poor and rich, the urban and rural section of the society have influenced many people to be a

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part of the recruitment process of the Hamas Organization. The organization have played an
instrumental role to target the individual grievance of children and students and influenced them
to join the Hamas Organization. The Palestine women are often afflicted with adverse conditions
and the Hamas Organization influences these women and civilians of Palestine to join and
support the Hamas Organization. The Organization engages in charitable activities in Palestine
and also aims to free Palestine from Israel, both these strategies impact the recruitment process
of the Hamas Organization (Roy 2013).
4. Organizational Structure of Hamas Organization
It is important to analyze the organization structure of the Hamas organization to
understand the way this organization conducts its operational activities. The organization has a
government based in Gaza and political bureau with a foreign base. The leaders of Hamas
Organization have contradictory opinions about the fact whether the military wing of the
organization functions under the guidance of the political wing or operates independently.
Political Bureau- It is the principal authority of Hamas Organization. Ismail Haniyeh
heads the political bureau of Hamas Organization. In the year 2017, Yahya Sinwar who is a
member of the armed wing of the group got the opportunity to replace Ismail Haniyeh because
he won the election conducted internally. He will replace Ismail to be the leader of the Hamas
Organization (Yousef 2011).
Gaza Government-The Hamas government in Gaza elected Ismail Haniyeh who served as
the former prime minister of the group. In the year 2014, Rami Hamdallah was elected as the
new prime minister of the Hamas government. In the month of September of the year 2017, the

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Hamas Organization made the announcement for the dissolving its government in the Gaza. This
decision was in agreement with the decision of Palestinian Authority (PA) to conduct elections
of the parliament in the Gaza strip and West Bank (Bhasin and Hallward 2013).
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade-This is the military wing of the Hamas Organization. The
Brigades conducted suicide bombings and other attacks of terror under the leadership of
Mohammad Deif. Thus it is evident that the Hamas Organization has a structure of different
divisions like the military wing, political wing and the Gaza government. However, a clear line
of separation between the political and the military wing of the Hamas Organization is not
existent (Bhasin and Hallward 2013).
5. Five strategies mentioned in Bill Banff’s Module 4 lecture are attrition, intimidation,
provocation, spoiling, or outbidding
Strategic logic and the strategy that best describes Hamas Organization
The strategic logic of Hamas Organization is to liberate the territories of Palestine from
the occupation of Israel. The organization focuses on launching rockets and suicide bombers to
pursue their goal. Hamas operates a military wing and runs a political wing as well as network
of social service
The Strategy that is best applicable to the Hamas Organization is the strategy of
Intimidation. The Hamas Organization tried to persuade Israel that they are more powerful than
Israel and waged war against Israel to free Palestine from occupancy of Israel. The organization
conducted air-strikes, fired rockets and conducted suicide bombings to kill civilians of Israel
(Kardelj 2010).

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The tactics of Hamas Organization
The Hamas Organization adopted the tactics of conducting terror activities against Israel
but the organization also performed religious and charitable deeds in Palestine because of which
the organization received support from many countries across the globe, for instance, the Middle
East countries(Aljamal 2016).The organization conducts activities to raise funds to support its
terrorist and administrative functions. The organization receives training from Iran; activities to
raise funds are conducted in North America and Europe and depend on Palestine for donation.
The organization adopts tactics of delivery of weapons through tunnel, conducts suicide
bombings and fires rockets targeting mosques, schools and colleges (Walther 2010).
The common weapons, targets or tactics used by the Hamas Organiztaion
The Hamas Organization engaged in a War with Israel that continued for 50 days. The
Hamas Organization in Gaza was accountable for firing around 4500 mortars and rockets in
Israel. The organization engaged in indiscriminate firing of rockets because of which the
civilians had to find place for shelter to protect themselves and their children. Israel defended
them in the war actively and passively. The organization adopts the strategy to target industrial
parks, Defense Ministry Facilities, ports, water plants, hoses, shopping malls and schools to
cause mass casualties. The Hamas Organizations possessed more than 10,000 rockets which they
stole from arsenals in Libya. Also, Iran and Syria supplied these long-range to Hamas
Organization. The naval ships of Iran were involved in delivery of weapons to the ports of Sudan
and Syria, smuggling takes place from these ports to the Egypt-Gaza border and tunnels are used
to deliver weapons to Hamas Organization. The organization also took help of the strategy of
suicide bombings, car bombings, and airstrikes to kill civilians (Kardelj 2010).

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How does Hamas Organization use the media?
Hamas Organization adopts practices of intimidation and censorship against reporters of
international media. The Foreign Press Association has condemned Hamas Organization for
using unorthodox methods to restrict the visit of international journalists in Gaza. The
organization has prepared a black-list with names of journalists they wanted to restrict visiting
Gaza .It has been reported by the Times of Israel that Hamas Organization often threatened
journalists who took photographs of the organization. The Hamas Organization is known for
implementing manipulative methods against media during the Operation Protective Edge. The
organization pushed the media to narrate a story helpless Palestinians. The Hamas Organization
has disrupted the journalists; distorted photographs published in media and deceived the media to
achieve this objective. Levitt discusses the media structure of Hamas Organization in which he
mentions the significant role that the media Jihad and New Media Jihad plays to radicalize the
Palestinian society. The Hamas organization focused on organization of public campaign and
used the media to win elections in the past.
How does Hamas organization market or recruit?
The Hamas Organization targets kindergartens in Gaza to manipulate the tender mind of
children so that they can be supporters and soldiers of the organization in future. The University
of Gaza conducted a survey in April 2001 and found that the recruitment process of Hamas
Organization is striking. 49 % of children in the age group of 9-16 have participated in the
recruitment process of the Hamas Organization, 73 percent of children wanted to become
martyrs (Roy 2013). The Hamas Organization markets itself as a social welfare group and thus
receives financial aid from many Middle Eastern countries. The organization has independent
charitable and political wings and markets itself on charitable ground because of which it

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receives logistical and financial support from many countries. The Hamas Organization focuses
on technical areas of marketing while organizing marketing activities like public campaigns. The
organization analyzes the objectives, the message, the infrastructure and the target audience
while marketing itself on potential media. The Internet publications, the print media provide
important marketing platform for the Hamas Organization (Mozes and Weimann 2010). For
instance, the Alaqsa channel is known for broadcasting messages of the Hamas organization
during the Israeli Airstrikes.
Conclusion
6. How Hamas Organization can be countered
The Hamas Organization can be countered by the process of Intelligence Analysis. The
collection and analysis of information about the Hamas organization is important to understand
the activities of the organization. It is important to develop a surveillance wing to study the
activities of the Hamas Organization. Intelligent apparatus should be developed which can be
used to combat terror attacks of the Hamas Organization. The threats of the Hamas organization
should be identified and classified into threats which are immediate and require special attention
to be combated. The operations of military and paramilitary group of a country play a vital role
in disrupting the infrastructure of the Hamas Organization. The security of commercial aviation
plays an important role to combat the terror attack of the Hamas organization. The countries
should adopt mechanism of defense against the biological and chemical attacks of the Hamas
Organization. The countries like Israel where the Hamas Organization conducted terror attacks
must put efforts to enhance the psychological endurance of the civilians of the country. The
civilians of these countries should be provided with special security especially in mosques,

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schools, colleges and churches. The Hamas Organization also targets young mind of children to
influence them to join the organization. Thus countries should create awareness so that the
parents observe the activities of their children and prevent them from getting influenced by any
terror group. The media like newspapers, radio, and internet media should be used to create
awareness and psychological endurance against the Hamas Organization.
For instance, the Israel group conducted attack on the Hamas Organization in the year
2014. Two Hamas posts located on the Northern strips of Gaza were targeted by the Air Force
of Israel. The F-35 fighter jets were used in the strike organized by Israel against Hamas
Organization. The Operation Protective Edge was conducted by the Hamas Organization which
witnessed the launching of hundreds of projectiles, mortars and rockets from by the Hamas
organization towards Israel. The Hamas organization is solely responsible for the civilians and
soldiers and since then Israel has adopted suitable measures to combat the terror group, the
Hamas Organization.

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7. Reference Lists
Adamson, D.L., 2016. Son of Hamas.
Aljamal, Y.M., 2016. HAMAS: A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION OR LIBERATION
MOVEMENT?. Politics and Religion Journal, 8(1), pp.39-58.
Berti, B., 2015. Non-state actors as providers of governance: The Hamas government in Gaza
between effective sovereignty, centralized authority, and resistance. The Middle East
Journal, 69(1), pp.9-31.
Bhasin, T. and Hallward, M.C., 2013. Hamas as a political party: democratization in the
Palestinian territories. Terrorism and political violence, 25(1), pp.75-93.
Gerges, F.A., 2010. The transformation of Hamas. Nation Company.
Kardelj, N., 2010. Israel Vs. Hamas. Nova Science Publishers.
Mozes, T. and Weimann, G., 2010. The e-marketing strategy of Hamas. Studies in Conflict &
Terrorism, 33(3), pp.211-225.
Roy, S., 2013. Hamas and civil society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist social sector. Princeton
University Press.
Sayigh, Y., 2010. Hamas rule in Gaza: three years on. Middle East Brief, 41.
Walther, M.A., 2010. Hamas between violence and pragmatism. BoD–Books on Demand.
Yousef, M.H., 2011. Son of Hamas: A gripping account of terror, betrayal, political intrigue,
and unthinkable choices. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc..