Since its founding in 1987, Hamas has developed solid relationships with several regional powers and organizations in the Middle East. Funding, military aid and even ideological support: the Palestinian Islamist movement can count on several allies after its deadly attack on October 7th.
After the deadly Hamas attack on October 7th, the question arises as to which organizations and foreign states support this Palestinian Islamist movement. Iran, Algeria, Tunisia: Several nations have provided direct support in recent days. Since its founding in 1987, Hamas – which is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel – has also developed close ties with several regional powers.
Whether from Doha, Tehran or Ankara, this support for the Palestinian Islamist movement takes various forms: economic, military or even ideological. France 24 takes stock of Hamas’s ties to several foreign states.
Qatar’s financial and political ties to Hamas
Doha appears to be the major financier of Hamas. “It is a proven, public and assumed financial support of the order of $30 million per month,” explains Didier Billion, deputy director of the Institute for International and Strategic Relations (Iris). “These payments are justified to pay officials in Gaza, and we know full well that the latter are members of Hamas.” (Doha’s money) is therefore the equivalent of direct support to this organization, which controls the Palestinian enclave held it with an iron fist for many years.”
This financial support began five years ago to prevent “a major humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” as Libération explained in 2018. The first payment – $15 million – was made in cash in three bags transported to the Israeli border crossing of Erez, north of Gaza, by Mohammed al-Emadi. The Qatari diplomat responsible for Palestinian issues is an unofficial mediator between the Gaza Strip, Doha and Israel.
Qatar’s dilemma of recent days: How to transfer $15 million to Hamas so it can pay its officials and calm tensions in Gaza? The solution ultimately chosen was to send a diplomat through the Israeli border post with three suitcases of cash pic.twitter.com/C7j3zYyYRi
— Guillaume Gendron (@g_gendron) November 8, 2018
These money transfers were made with the consent of the Israelis and the international community, as The Times of Israel recalled on October 8. The news site explains that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy “was to deal with the terrorist group to the detriment of “(Mahmoud) Abbas and the creation of a Palestinian state.” He added: “For most of the time, Israeli policy has been to view the Palestinian Authority as a liability and Hamas as an asset.”
Qatar’s ties to Hamas are financial, but also political: Doha has hosted the head of the Islamist movement’s Politburo, Ismail Haniyeh, since 2012. A “troublesome game” by the small emirate that does not stop there, as Myriam Benraad, political scientist, professor of international relations at Schiller International University and author of “Is the Islamic State defeated?” (ed. CNRS) explains: “Doha Not only hosted the political branch of Hamas – certain prominent leaders – but in recent days it also immediately acted as a negotiator on the issue of the Israeli hostages. This indirectly increases the role played by this small Gulf monarchy.”
A role that the international community is also aware of, just as Germany called on Qatar on October 12 to play “an important role” in the release of these hostages, “because they have communication channels that we do not have.”
Iran, the “axis of resistance” and financial and military support
Iran, one of the major powers in the Middle East, also maintains close relations with Hamas. Didier Billion distinguishes “two levels” of the relationship between Tehran and the Islamist movement: “At the public level, Iran supports the Palestinian national cause, with clear support for Hamas, a relationship embraced by Iranian and Palestinian leaders.” Indeed Tehran embodies – with Hamas, the Palestinian organization Islamic Jihad and even the Lebanese Hezbollah – “the axis of resistance” against Israel. This is one of the fundamental components of Iran’s foreign policy in the Middle East.
“The second level is not public: it is either financial or logistical assistance from the Revolutionary Guards,” the expert continues. The head of Hamas’ political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, admitted in an interview with Al-Jazeera in early 2022 that the Islamist movement had received “$70 million in military aid” from Iran. According to a US State Department report published in 2020, Tehran would generally fund all Palestinian armed groups to the tune of $100 million per year.
“Military support takes place at the level of transferring Iranian technology,” explains Wassim Nasr, a journalist specializing in jihadist movements at France 24. “It involves teaching how to make a drone and how to modify a civilian drone to that it becomes a drone. “Military… But sometimes also to deliver ammunition and weapons that are transported across the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula.”
#Gaza THE #Hamas has been building his skills with the help of for years#Iran It is no secret, yet these skills remain artisanal, the asymmetry is total compared to Israeli know-how and skills https://t.co/K8UZLHKHDA
– Wassim Nasr (@SimNasr) October 10, 2023
The ties between Hamas and Iran are so strong that after the October 7 attack, Tehran’s responsibility was highlighted by several international media outlets – including the Wall Street Journal, which confirmed that “Iran has been preparing for several weeks “was involved in an attack against Israel.” . The Iranian regime denied any involvement and spoke of “false rumors” about it.
“It is still too early to identify all the responsibilities for this attack,” estimates Myriam Benraad, who adds that the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation could increase tensions in the region: “Iran has been in indirect conflict for many years Confrontation with Israel, and (the Hamas attack) will reinforce that pattern.”
Turkey, “rhetorical support” for Hamas, which is also trying to mediate the conflict
“Some NGOs provide humanitarian aid” in Gaza, but Ankara supports Hamas “mainly rhetorically,” explains Wassim Nasr. In fact, Turkey has a long history of supporting the Palestinian cause. Its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reiterated this last July, reaffirming that “the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital within the 1967 borders, based on the principles of the United Nations, is essential to peace and peace “Peace is the stability of our entire region.”
Unlike Qatar and Iran, Ankara’s support is more “political” than financial or military, explains Didier Billion. In addition, the Turkish government has ties not only to Hamas, but also to the Palestinian Authority. He also welcomed his two leaders in Ankara last July.
Nevertheless, “Turkey has repeatedly rolled out the red carpet for Hamas in recent years,” said the deputy director of Iris. There are also occasional visits to Ankara by the head of the Hamas politburo, Ismail Haniyeh, who is in voluntary exile between Qatar and Turkey.
After the October 7 attack, Ankara tried to act as a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Recep Tayyip Erdogan first called on Israel and Hamas to “support peace” and then condemned the Jewish state’s “shameful methods” as part of its military response against the Gaza Strip. On October 11, an official source told AFP and Portal that the Turkish president had initiated a negotiation process with Hamas to secure the release of hostages kidnapped during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
Also read: Israel’s military response: “Either we negotiate for months (…) or we act immediately”
Old and sometimes blurry pillars: Egypt and Hezbollah
The ties between Egypt and Hamas are ancient – the Palestinian movement is in fact an outgrowth of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose first brotherhood was founded on Egyptian soil in 1928. But these relations weakened when Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sissi came to power in 2013 in a coup against Mohamed Morsi (Muslim Brotherhood).
Before the atmosphere became tense, Hamas was able to use tunnels that bypassed the Egyptian border toward Gaza to illegally import basic necessities, building materials and even weapons. The Egyptian authorities then closed most of the tunnels. But Cairo changed its position slightly starting in 2018, allowing some commercial goods into Gaza. According to the American think tank Council on Foreign Relations, Hamas collected more than $12 million a month in taxes in 2021.
After the Hamas attack, Cairo, like Ankara, positioned itself as a mediator in the conflict. Egypt – the first Arab country to recognize Israel’s existence in 1979 – is also Gaza’s only opening to the world via the Rafah border post south of the Palestinian enclave.
Also read: Mohammed Deif, the elusive architect of the Hamas attack on Israel
For its part, Lebanese Hezbollah does not plan to take on this interim role after the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation. The Shiite Islamist movement said on Friday, October 13, that it was “fully ready” to intervene against Israel in due course during a demonstration in support of Palestinians in Beirut. “Their first ties to Hamas date back to the 1990s, when leaders of the Palestinian Islamist movement were expelled to an area in southern Lebanon where Hezbollah was present,” recalls Wassim Nasr.
Since that time, Hezbollah has maintained close ties with Hamas, although the two organizations have experienced disagreements, particularly during Syria’s civil war in 2011. In the last few months, Shiite Islamist movements and Palestinians have met several times in Beirut with representatives of Islamic Jihad and the Iranian Al-Quds Force, or “the Axis of Resistance,” in order to “carefully plan the offensive in Israel.” , says The Orient Le Jour.
Didier Billion is more cautious: “I don’t know anything about what was discussed, but it is important to understand that these different groups have an ideological-political proximity, a convergence in the necessary fight against the Hebrew state.”