Strike on terror: Can Hamas be fully ‘eliminated’?

•  CATHRIN SCHAER

ISRAEL: The Israeli government has been clear. The militant group Hamas will be “eliminated,” many senior members of government, including the country’s prime minister, have all said. On certain Israeli television channels, slogans such as “Together we will win” appear regularly. But is it really possible to completely eliminate Hamas and “win” in a situation like this?

The short answer, as experts have repeatedly said, is no. Israel has been bombing the Gaza Strip, home to more than two million Palestinians, since the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by Germany, the European Union, the US and others. Israel has also launched a ground offensive into the Gaza Strip and is blocking the delivery of food, water and power into the enclave.

Despite this, most analysts say that it won’t be possible to get rid of Hamas altogether, the main reason being that Hamas is more than just a militant organization.

Hamas has an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 fighters, Guido Steinberg, an expert on the Middle East at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told DW recently. But, he added, “it is also a social movement with mass support in the Gaza Strip. And that is the problem in the long run.”

Hamas has been in de facto control of the Gaza Strip since 2007, and as part of its social movement, there is a welfare network known as “dawah.” This civilian network is thought to have between 80,000 and 90,000 members, Steinberg said.

Dawah means “call” or “invitation” and is historically defined as a way of calling or inviting more believers to one’s faith through social outreach, the Oxford Dictionary of Islam explains.

Israel “would love to eradicate Hamas as an institution, as a political, religious and cultural structure, and as a military structure,” Rashid Khalidi, a professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia University in New York told the Spanish newspaper El Pais, in late October.

“I don’t think they can do the first two things,” he argued. “Whether they kill all their leaders, whether they kill all the armed militants, Hamas will remain as a political force, whether the Israelis occupy Gaza or leave. So destroying Hamas as a political institution, destroying Hamas as an idea, is impossible.”

Hamas does not recognize the state of Israel. The group believes that religion should be the basis of any Palestinian government. But it is probably its self-described position as a resistance movement opposed to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories and the Gaza Strip that makes it most popular.

However, Khalidi added, what the Israelis may well be able to do is degrade Hamas’ military capabilities, “but only to a limited extent and period.” Israel has one of the most powerful militaries in the world, ranking 18th out of 145 nations in 2023 on Global Firepower’s annual list of armed strength. For comparison, Germany sits in 25th place. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reports that last year Israel spent 4.5% of its national income on defense — that’s more than the US or Germany, which spent 3.5% and 1.4%.

Meanwhile, Hamas’ military wing operates more like a guerilla group and has smuggled most of its weapons into the Gaza Strip. So Israel certainly has the resources to degrade Hamas and hunt down its leaders. Although the numbers cannot be independently verified, the Israeli government said recently it believes it has killed between 5,000 and 7,000 Hamas fighters.