Hamas Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah What they want how strong

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah: What they want, how strong they are, where and how Islamic armed groups operate in the Middle East G1

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Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad: How Islamic armed groups operate in the Middle East

The explosion of a hospital in the Gaza Strip this Tuesday (17), in which at least 400 people died, brought the extremist armed group Palestinian Islamic Jihad back into the news about the war between the terrorist organization Hamas and Israel.

  • Shortly after the incident, Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, said Israel had carried out an attack on the Ahli Arab Hospital in the city of Gaza.
  • However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that the explosion was caused by a rocket from Islamic Jihad, a terrorist organization linked to Hamas. According to this version, the initial target of the shot was Israeli territory, but the device ultimately hit the hospital.
  • Islamic Jihad, in turn, denied being responsible for the incident and said there was no activity in or around Gaza City at the time of the explosion.
  • This Wednesday (18), a preliminary analysis by US intelligence officials revealed that the explosion was caused by a rocket fired by a Palestinian group whose name was not mentioned.

See below how and where they operate, what they want and how strong these three armed groups are:

  • Hamas
  • Palestinian Islamic Jihad
  • Hezbollah

1 of 3 Infographic about Hamas Photo: Bárbara Miranda and Kayan Albertin/Arte g1 Infographic about Hamas Photo: Bárbara Miranda and Kayan Albertin/Arte g1

  • In the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, both Palestinian territories.
  • But there are leaders spread across other countries, such as Lebanon and Qatar.
  • In Arabic, Hamas is an acronym for “Islamic Resistance Movement.”
  • Born in 1987after the start of the first Palestinian intifada against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
  • He is considered a terrorist by the United States, Israel, the European Union and the United Kingdom, among others.
  • The terrorist group’s 1988 statute defined historic Palestine, including modernday Israel, as an Islamic country and ruled out any possibility of lasting peace with the Jewish state. In the document, Hamas called for the destruction of Israel.
  • In 2017, the group updated its constitution and formally accepted the creation of a provisional Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. He also stated that his fight was not against the Jewish people, but only against the “occupying Zionist aggressors” but he continued without recognizing Israel.
  • The new document also emphasized that Hamas is not a revolutionary force that seeks to intervene in other countries.

This year, the leader of the group’s political wing said: “Hamas supports the liberation of all of Palestine, but is prepared to support the state according to the 1967 borders without recognizing Israel or giving up any rights.”

At the time, Netanyahu said Hamas was trying to “deceive the world.”

  • Hamas has an armed wing, but also a political wing, which won the 2006 legislative elections in Palestine and defeated Fatah. Fatah is represented by Palestinian Authority (ANL) President Mahmoud Abbas and is the largest group in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
  • The following year, Hamas expelled Fatah from Gaza and seized political and administrative control of the area, prompting Israel to impose a blockade that continues to this day.
  • Hamas’s political and administrative arm includes teachers, doctors and urban planners. The group built and managed several schools and clinics and, for example, controlled the entire health and education system in Gaza.
  • Hamas established itself as the main Palestinian group opposed to the Oslo Accords negotiated between Israel and the PLO from 1993 to 1995. Following the agreements, Hamas carried out suicide bombings that killed Israeli civilians. After the failure of a summit sponsored by American President Bill Clinton in 2000 and the second intifada that followed, Hamas continued to carry out suicide bombings and gain power and influence, while Israel repressed the Palestinian Authority, which is also accused of sponsoring attacks, according to the BBC .
  • In March and April 2004, Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and his successor Abdul Aziz alRantissi were killed in Israeli rocket attacks on Gaza.

What is its strength and how does it work:

  • It is the largest armed group in Palestine.
  • In 2008, Hamas rockets had a maximum range of 40 km. In 2021, the range reached 230 km, Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas leader based in London, told Portal.
  • According to the Israeli army, more than a thousand rockets were fired into the country during the three days of conflict in 2021 90% of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.
  • Us 1990sHamas had fewer than 10,000 fighters. Today it would be 40,000, a source close to the group told Portal. However, the total number is not known.
  • Hamas has built a network of tunnels under Gaza to facilitate escapes and the import of weapons from abroad.
  • The group has also managed to acquire bombs, rockets, mortars, antitank missiles and antiaircraft missiles in recent years.
  • According to the BBC, Hamas currently operates various longrange missiles, such as the M75 (up to 75 km), the Fajr (up to 100 km) and the R160 (up to 120 km). km). There are also some M302s that range even further (up to 200 km).
  • The shortrange missiles are manufactured by the company in Gaza. But according to one of the leaders’ statement to Al Jazeera last year, the longrange missiles come from Iran, Syria and Egypt.
  • According to this tour The group received $70 million in military aid from Iran The country has already admitted that it helps finance and train the group, but denies involvement in the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
  • According to an Israeli security source, Iran last year increased funding for Hamas’s armed wing from $100 million to around $350 million a year.
  • In addition to sourcing weapons from abroad, Hamas also produces its own weapons, using, among other things, some of the infrastructure destroyed by Israel’s previous attacks (metal plates and tubes, electrical structures) as well as recycling Israeli ammunition that did not explode said USnaturalized Palestinian Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib in an article for the Washington Institute.
  • In the attack of October 7th Hamas fired more than 2,500 rockets. Militants on paragliders, motorcycles and fourwheeled vehicles invaded Israel, destroying communities, killing 1,300 people and taking dozens hostage.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad

2 of 3 Infographic on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Photo: Bárbara Miranda and Kayan Albertin/Arte g1 Infographic on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Photo: Bárbara Miranda and Kayan Albertin/Arte g1

  • In the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, both Palestinian territories.
  • According to Portal, the company has offices in Beirut and Damascus, Lebanon.
  • According to the American government, there are also offices in Tehran, Iran.
  • As an occasional ally of Hamas, he took part in the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and received hostages from the terrorist group.
  • He is accused by Israel of being responsible for the recent explosion at a hospital in Gaza City, which the group denies.
  • It was founded Early 1980s by Fathi Shiqaqi on the liberation of Palestine and the fight against Israeli occupation through armed struggle.
  • Shiqaqi, previously a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization founded in Egypt, was assassinated in Malta in 1995.
  • Initially consisting mainly of intellectuals and university students, the group developed into an organized armed movement in its early years.
  • Palestinian Islamic Jihad aims to liberate all of historic Palestine, meaning it does not recognize Israel and is opposed to the twostate solution in the region.
  • According to studies mentioned in the book “A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Faith, Conscience and Revolution in the Middle East,” Islamic Jihad, unlike Hamas, emerged as, and is distinguished by, a “revolutionary movement, small and antiestablishment.” “revolutionary avantgardism through which it does not want to become a broader mass movement”.
  • It is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
  • It also carried out suicide attacks against Israel in the 1990s and 2000s.
  • The group is against any political engagement with Israel.
  • Unlike Hamas, it does not participate in local politics or take part in elections.

What is the force and how does it work:

  • Second largest armed group in the Gaza Strip and the third largest in the occupied territories.
  • Although the group has previously carried out attacks alongside Hamas, it also operates independently and focuses primarily on military confrontations against Israel.
  • In 2017, for example, Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for rockets and mortars fired at Israel.
  • There are few estimates of the size of the group. According to Portal, estimates for 2021 are around a thousand to several thousand fighters, according to the CIA’s World Factbook.
  • There is also little information about the group’s arsenal. According to Portal, Islamic Jihad has a significant amount of rockets, mortars and antitank missiles.
  • It also receives funding from Iran.

3 of 3 Infographic about Hezbollah Photo: Bárbara Miranda and Kayan Albertin/Arte g1 Infographic about Hezbollah Photo: Bárbara Miranda and Kayan Albertin/Arte g1

  • Lebanon.
  • He also served in the Syrian Civil War.
  • It claims to follow the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
  • It was founded by Iranian Revolutionary Guard in 1982in the middle of the Lebanese Civil War to fight against Israeli forces that had invaded the country.
  • The name Hezbollah means “Party of Allah”. It is a Shia Muslim group.
  • In addition to an armed group, Hezbollah is involved in politics, with parliamentarians, operates as a political party in Lebanon, where it is described as “a state within a state” due to its wide network of political, military and social forces. It enjoys the support of a large part of the country’s Shiite population.
  • The group retained its weapons after the end of Lebanon’s civil war to continue the fight against Israeli forces occupying parts of the country’s south. Years of conflict led to Israel unilaterally withdrawing in 2000.
  • Their goal is the “final expulsion of the Americans, French and their allies from Lebanon and the termination of all colonial unity.”
  • In the manifesto released after its founding, Hezbollah also says that its goal is for “all the children of our people to determine their future and be free to choose the form of government they want,” and suggests that the An Islamic government is an option. “Only an Islamic regime can stop all new attempts at imperialist infiltration in our country,” the document says.
  • It is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel. The European Union classifies the group’s armed wing as terrorist, but not its political wing.

What is its strength and how does it work:

  • According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), an American think tank, Hezbollah is the most heavily armed nonstate actor in the world, with a large and diverse arsenal of missiles and antiaircraft ballistic missiles. Antitank and rocket missiles. Cruise.
  • The group claims it is capable of attacking all areas of Israel with missiles..
  • According to the Politico website, some of the group’s guided missiles are capable of delivering warheads weighing 500 kg over a distance of 300 km. Hezbollah also has air defense systems and a fleet of reconnaissance and combat drones.
  • Nevertheless, according to CSIS, the majority of the arsenal consists of unguided artillery rockets. The group would have a capacity for 130,000 launches.
  • In 2021, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the group had about 100,000 fighters.
  • To Al Jazeera, an expert at the Atlantic Council, another American think tank: estimated the number of combatants at 60,000. Among them is an elite unit trained to infiltrate Israel in the event of war.
  • Iran finances and supplies weapons to the group.
  • Hezbollah’s military prowess was highlighted in 2006 when the group kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, sparking a fiveweek war against Israel that left 1,200 dead in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and 158 Israeli dead, most of them military personnel.
  • In 2012, the group supported Bashar alAssad in the civil war in Syria.