The deputy leader of Hamas’ political arm, Saleh al-Arouri, described the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel in terms that contradict witness accounts.
“The military plan of the Al-Qassam Brigades was to target the Gaza division of the [Israeli] occupation army and fight only against the occupation soldiers; we had information that the [occupation] force was planning to launch an attack against us on the Hebrew holiday,” Al-Arouri told the Al-Jazeera broadcaster.
The Al-Qassam Brigades are the military arm of Hamas, an organization considered terrorist by the United States and Europe.
Al-Arouri says that on October 7, around 1,200 members of the Al-Qassam Brigades broke through the borders of the Gaza Strip and entered Israel, where they took part in terrorist attacks. However, he denies that the civilians were deliberately targeted by the terrorists, saying that other people from Gaza – also civilians – subsequently committed some of the worst atrocities against Israelis.
Nor did Al-Arouri explain why there were so few Israeli soldiers on the other side of the border, if Israel had indeed planned an attack on Gaza on that date.
“Obscure” leadership
Al-Arouri, one of the founders of the Al-Qassam Brigades, has been living in exile for more than ten years. The current leader, Mohammed Deif, is often described as an “obscure” leader who has lived in hiding for two decades, as his name is at the top of Israel’s most wanted list.
Deif, who has led the Al-Qassam brigades since 2002, is believed to be behind the main terrorist attacks on Israeli soil. It is also speculated that he is very weak physically after having been the target of several assassination attempts by the Israeli army.
The Al-Qassam Brigades were founded in 1992. According to CIA records, they have between 20,000 and 25,000 members, although these figures are impossible to verify independently. The group is currently holding more than 200 hostages in Gaza.
The name refers to the cleric Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, born in Syria in 1882. He was a social reformer who was convinced that the only way to expel the European colonizers from the Middle East was through violence. He was killed by the British police in 1935.
The Brigades are also involved in building the extensive network of tunnels under Gaza, which in the past have been used to carry out attacks in Israel. In 2006, Hamas terrorists used the tunnels to kidnap Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit near the border.
The group has also managed to attack Israel by sea. In 2014, during a seven-week operation carried out by the Israeli army, four Hamas members swam to shore and attacked an Israeli tank, being killed in combat with local soldiers.
Ties with Iran and Hisbollah
As part of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades also receive financial and strategic support from Iran.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran […] has contributed greatly, on the one hand by transferring knowledge and expertise, and on the other by transporting rockets, helping Hamas to rely on its local capabilities to produce these advanced technologies,” Khaled Qaddoumi, considered a liaison between Hamas and the Iranian government, told AI Monitor magazine in 2021.
This support from Iran has increased in recent decades, says Michael Milshtein, a former member of Israel’s military intelligence and current researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University.
Milshtein told DW that Iran helps train the members of the Al-Qassam Brigades: “snipers, booby traps and paratroopers and everything we faced on October 7.”
It is difficult to know exactly how the Brigades are financed. Milshtein, however, believes that the Iranian government has an influence. “We’re talking about huge sums of money that Iran gives to Hamas, mainly to its military arm,” said the Israeli. He believes that in the last two or three years alone, this total has reached 100 million dollars.
It is possible that cryptocurrencies have also helped finance the Al-Qassam Brigades. As early as 2019, the group asked its supporters via Telegram to send donations using bitcoins.
After the October 7 attacks, the Israeli authorities announced the freezing of several cryptocurrency accounts associated with Hamas on the grounds that the group had made requests for donations via social media.
In 2019, the US Treasury Department published the names of people from Lebanon and Gaza who were considered “financial facilitators” and “critical intermediaries” who worked to connect Iran and the Al-Qassam Brigades. According to Washington, the Lebanon-based Islamist group Hisbollah also played a role in this process.
Hisbollah’s military arm is also considered a terrorist organization by the European Union (EU).
Where the weapons come from
The quantity and variety of weapons used in the October 7 attacks – rockets, drones and small arms – as well as the firing of mortars into Israeli territory, are indications that the Brigades still have stocks of ammunition. The exact number of projectiles, however, is unknown.
Many of these weapons are smuggled into the Gaza Strip, often with the help of Hizbollah or through Syria, says Milshtein.
The Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) cites an interview given by Ziad al-Nakhalah, secretary-general of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad – an organization also considered terrorist by the US and the EU.
Speaking to the Lebanon-based media outlet Al Mayadeen, which is sympathetic to Iran, al-Nakhalah confirmed that conventional weapons reach the group mainly through Hizbollah and Syria, and that all members of the so-called “axis of resistance” would have a hand in this – in reference to the network of groups that Iran supports in the Middle East in order to advance its goals, which include anti-Israel and anti-US policies.
Smuggling can take place by land, sea or underground.
The JISS researchers also noted that Al-Nakhalah specifically mentioned training camps in Syria, where Hamas fighters learn to build rockets.
According to the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies in Israel, the Qassam Brigades use civilians as human shields to protect their arsenal and their fighters. This, according to the researchers, is a strategy suggested by Iran and adopted on purpose.
Analysts say that the aim is to convey a negative image of Israel, as if Israeli forces were acting purposefully and disproportionately in taking civilian casualties.
*** Translated by DEFCONPress FYI Team***