By Pishtaz and AFP | 2023-10-13

JERUSALEM -- In its bloody assault on Israel, Hamas was aiming to break a stalemate in Gaza, analysts say, but with its neighbor now determined to eradicate the militant group, it may have made a fatal mistake.

Responsible for governing the coastal enclave since its violent takeover in 2007, Hamas had come under pressure from the Palestinian public for the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza, said George Giacaman, a professor at Birzeit University in the West Bank.

"The people's anger towards Israel had become anger towards the government and therefore towards Hamas," Giacaman told AFP.

Hamas was created in 1987 by a group of militants claiming to be from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Over the years Hamas developed a vast social welfare network alongside charitable works, most notably schools, which helps explain an influence and popularity that have surged at the expense of the Palestinian Authority.

The current head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, lives between Türkiye and Qatar, although the group is directed in Gaza by Yahya Sinwar, seen as a hardliner within the movement.

Hamas has a separate armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, which is led by the elusive Mohammed Deif, Israel's public enemy number one and a man it has tried to assassinate on multiple occasions.

Angered that it was blocked from exercising real power after winning a parliamentary election in 2006, Hamas -- considered a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States -- ousted loyalists of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas from the Gaza strip in 2007 to take undisputed control of the territory.

Terrible toll on inhabitants

In 2018, Hamas and Israel agreed on a long-term truce intended to stabilize the Gaza strip, beset by poverty and unemployment, following mediation by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations (UN).

Although Hamas engaged in a new round of hostilities with Israel in 2021, it stayed out of May 2023 clashes between Israel and Islamic Jihad, the other main Islamist armed group in Gaza.

That stance had provided ammunition to Hamas's rivals, who accused it of pursuing its own interests in observing a ceasefire with Israel, in exchange for, among other things, an easing of the economic blockade.

The powerlessness of Hamas when confronted with the deteriorating living conditions in Gaza is one reason why it launched its brutal offensive on Saturday (October 7), Giacaman said. More than 1,200 civilians, soldiers and foreigners were killed in the attack in Israel and dozens taken hostage.

"Life in Gaza had become unbearable. Water and electricity are lacking, and unemployment is very high," Giacaman said.

The timing of the operation, dubbed "Al-Aqsa Flood" by Hamas, has led to reprisals against Gaza that have killed more than 1,300 people, the majority of them civilians, according to health officials.

More than 340,000 people have fled their homes in the enclave, with more than 2,500 homes destroyed or rendered uninhabitable, the United Nations (UN) said.

Gaza's health ministry warned that a shortage of medical supplies and medications would lead to a "catastrophic situation" in the Gaza strip.

And the only power plant in the enclave shut down Wednesday after it ran out of fuel, said Gaza's electricity authority.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that "every member of Hamas is a dead man," adding that Israel would "crush and destroy" the movement.

"It would be inconceivable for them [Hamas] not to expect a major Israeli response, one that could further destroy Gaza, exact a terrible toll on its long-suffering inhabitants and possibly spell the end of Hamas governance in the enclave," said a Brussels-based think tank, the International Crisis Group.

Israel has been massing troops near the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground assault into the enclave.