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Conflict in the Middle East
Original poster

What did Hamas think they would achieve through October 7?

178 replies

CroccyWoccy · 14/12/2023 09:17

I don’t normally post in this section so please forgive the potentially naive or badly phrased question (I don’t like the word ‘achieve’ but struggling to think of a better one.

Without wanting to get into whether any particular actions are justified or proportionate, it seems that it was entirely foreseeable that an attack such as the one that took place on Oct 7 would trigger an Israeli response on the scale we have seen.

With that in mind, I cannot understand Hamas’s motivation for planning such an attack, given the outcome of death and destruction with Gaza was inevitable? Or by trying to attribute some kind of rational strategy of cause and effect to Hamas, am I completely misunderstanding how they operate?

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Thereissomelight · 14/12/2023 09:42

Well, if so, it worked. Now we CAN all see what a terrible life the Gazans have been leading and what monstrous neighbours they have.

Bells3032 · 14/12/2023 09:28

Gaza has been out of the news and replaced with Ukraine who are now getting money and attention. They thought they would bring the ire of Israel who would then attack Gaza and then the leaders (sitting in their mansions in Qatar) could advertise what a terrible life Gazan's have and they need more money that they can then siphon off and not give to their people.

And to disrupt the peace treaty between Saudi Arabia and Israel

Two birds really

Noicant · 14/12/2023 09:27

I think they wanted to trigger a regional war before saudi normalisation. Reality is since the UAE basically explicitly said that Palestine was no longer going to be a critical bit of their foreign policy the issue of Palestine has lost saliency.

I also think it’s extremely personal, Sinwar was released from prison and probably immediately started thinking about what he wanted to do to Israel. This is not unusual anymore, Putins war is probably about a personal legacy, Trump is all motivated entirely by himself etc. The USA says there is no evidence that Iran actually knew about this particular attack and Hamas was going around reminding people about “promises made” which suggests they thought that if they started something that their friends had committed to helping (fairly sure that was directed at Hezbollah).