For Hamas, The Suffering Is The Point

6 min readMar 25, 2024

The Accusation of Indiscriminate Violence

Here is an example of what mercy brings in a conflict with an enemy like Hamas. In November 2006, the Israeli Air Force warned Muhammad Weil Baroud, commander of the Popular Resistance Committees who are accused of launching rockets into Israeli territory, to evacuate his home in a Jabalia refugee camp apartment block in advance of a planned Israeli air strike. Baroud responded by calling for volunteers to protect the apartment block and nearby buildings and, according to The Jerusalem Post, hundreds of local residents, mostly women and children, responded. Israel suspended the air strike. Israel termed the action an example of Hamas using human shields. In response to the incident, Hamas proclaimed: “We won. From now on we will form human chains around every house threatened with demolition.”

A few years later Baroud, undeterred, had continued to lead a constant barrage of rocket attacks against civilian targets inside Israel, and Israel, once again trying to deter him, located him and called with a warning that he should evacuate the house he was in before they destroyed it. Once again he stayed, and this time he kept his four wives and twelve children with him. Israel followed through with its plan to bomb his house, killing all inside. Palestinian propaganda used this as an example of how “Israel kills women and children”.

For Hamas, suffering is the point. There are two Palestinian media that exist. One is meant for consumption by potential political allies and sympathizers in the West; this is essentially atrocity pornography. The other is meant for consumption by domestic Palestinian society and the wider Muslim world; this is essentially wartime propaganda.

If you consumed the former and not the latter, as many Westerners do, you would have no idea that there is in fact a war going on in Gaza, and that Hamas’s armed wing is structured and fights like it is a modern military, not a cell-type criminal gang; you might even think that there’s a “genocide” occurring. Which is, of course, the point of this kind of Palestinian media.

Go deeper: Genocide or Just War?

Meanwhile, in the Palestinian media that’s actually meant for Palestinians and the wider Muslim world, every single day, Palestinian militias claim participation in engagements with the IDF and take credit for rocket launches into Israel proper. To them, it’s a war. To the Israelis, it’s a war. The only people that this is somehow not a war to are living thousands of miles away from it, viewing it through the lens of propaganda designed to mislead them about it.

As a commentator I read has said, he sees this personally because his stepfather is Muslim and sends him a lot of the wartime propaganda videos on WhatsApp and talks about the amazing military gains of Hamas e.g. “Hamas is destroying IDF tanks” which is completely the opposite message from what I’ve heard at anti-Zionist protests in the states, where people talk as if Israel is shooting fish in a barrel. I know this is merely him providing an anecdotal account but it’s still very interesting to see that.

How poor is the western media at producing war coverage as a war, rather than simply as a humanitarian crisis? I have even seen signs at protests saying, “It is not a war if only one side has an army”, which is about as disconnected from the reality on the ground as it gets. Responsibility for that sort of risible ignorance falls squarely on western politicians, activists and media.

Protest sign spreading the false narrative Hamas does not have an army. In reality, Hamas began the war with 24 brigades and 30,000 fighters, along with underground munitions factories and immense amounts of armaments distributed throughout Gaza.

Below is an example of the “other” media, which western audiences never get to see, and it is more representative of what is really going on from the perspective of an Israeli. You cannot understand why Israel is fighting, and why it fights the way it does, if you do not understand this is going on. This is a war where Israeli soldiers are caught up in an urban hellscape against an enemy which is indistinguishable from civilians.

Go deeper video: War footage released by Hamas for Arab consumption

The link above is to footage created and released by Hamas itself, in which you will see,

Hamas fighters shooting at the IDF from children’s bedrooms;
Hamas fighters chipping holes into the walls of civilian apartments to shoot through.
Hamas fighters equipped with modern IEDs, RPGs and mortars, and organized like a modern hit-and-run guerilla group, not a ragtag group of underdogs with rocks and handguns.
Hamas fighters dressed like civilians as they fight, proving you cannot tell from photos whether a casualty of the war was a civilian or a combatant. We are in the fog of war, so don’t believe the reported casualty counts.

What is not shown but we know from Israeli reports: Many children and women are on the battlefield, acting as lookouts, logistics support, human shields and even fighters. This makes them both targets and unavoidable collateral damage. You cannot tell from a photo whether a casualty is a civilian or a combatant, even if the person is a woman or a child.

Go deeper: American military analyst explains exactly why Israel needs to destroy civilian houses.

This is the nature of the war, as shown through the lens of Hamas’ own footage. And it is a war, not just a “humanitarian crisis”. If you want it to stop, as any compassionate human should, call for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages.

Hamas benefits simply by prolonging the suffering. If Israel gives in to increasing international pressure and withdraws with Hamas intact, throughout the Muslim world they will see Hamas as great heroes who have slain a giant, and aid will pour in not only to them but to similar Palestinian resistance groups. They will bounce back stronger than ever and faster than people think. If Israel stays and destroys Hamas but it takes a long time, if for example they have to destroy Rafah, their activists and allies in the West will use the massive amounts of atrocity porn they are producing to amp up the victim narrative to eleven, using it to isolate Israel more and more from Western allies, until it is weak enough to be taken by some successor organization.

That is why for Hamas, suffering is the point. Prolonging it is strategic. They want Gaza to be an industrial pain machine for Gazans. You do not have to take my word for it,

In dozens of messages sent over several months and acquired by The Wall Street Journal, Sinwar communicated to Hamas compatriots and mediating parties alike that he had no interest in pursuing a ceasefire with Israel, as he believed that the growing civilian death toll would serve to benefit Hamas more than a cessation of fighting would.

The Wall Street Journal report is behind a paywall, but you can read about it below by clicking on the Go deeper link.

Go deeper: Hamas leader describes how he views Gazans as human sacrifices, not human shields

The best way to understand how things have gone so badly is to read the chapters of this resource in order, from beginning to end, clicking on the Go deeper links as your time allows. It is an immersive experience and few people will get through unchanged, having learned the context of the conflict, including parts the United Nations does not want people to learn.

This essay is part of a larger resource for parents, teachers, students, concerned individuals, and anyone else who desires to contextualize the conflict and navigate the accusations against Israel and Palestinians.

All Chapters:

0. Foreword to Zionism and Anti-Zionism

1. The Gish Gallop of Anti-Zionism

2. Genocide or Just War?

3. For Hamas, The Suffering Is The Point

4. What Is Israel? Why So Much Violence?

5. The Hebrew People, Not the Jewish Religion

6. Chosen For Their Insignificance, Not Their Superiority

7. The Incoherence of, “I am not anti-Semitic. I am just against Zionism.”

8. Refugee Immigration, Not Settler Colonialism

9. How the Zionists Saved ( Not Conquered ) Palestine

10. The 1920’s And The Spread of Hate