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**Hugh** · 12-10-2023, 19:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul

I really dont understand the objective of Hamas with these attacks.

They must surely have understood that mass killing people at a festival, or the torture and massacre of whole families (men, boys, women, girls, babies) when attacking towns/villages would pretty much turn the whole world against them, and result in massive retaliation [and their likely total destruction in the end].

There seems nothing for them to gain, and everything for them to lose.

This article tries to explain

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israe...-always-wanted

Quote:

In reality, it was the prospect of Israel’s normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia, more than anything else, that drove Hamas to launch its attack.

Such an escalation, the group’s leaders calculated, would obstruct this new diplomatic effort that in their eyes would permanently undermine the standing of the Palestinian cause among Arab and Muslim countries.

Moreover, normalization would solidify an alliance against Iran and its proxies, including Hamas and Hezbollah.

Quote:

Hamas and its backers in Beirut and Tehran also saw an opportunity. Recent political and social upheaval in Israel convinced Nasrallah that Israel really is—as he described the country years earlier—“weaker than a spider’s web.” In February, he explained that Israel’s political crisis was causing internal weakness and security challenges for the country.

Hamas also understood that the Gaza border was vulnerable to attack since Israeli military officials had reduced the number of Israeli troops there, relying more on surveillance systems, sensors, and remotely automated machine guns. (Hamas used drones to disable parts of the Israeli military’s cellular communications systems, rendering many of these automated systems useless.)

Quote:

By penetrating Israel’s defenses so spectacularly, Hamas not only sought to encourage others to step up and do the same (saying, in essence, “We attacked Israel, and you can, too”); it also sought to convince Saudi Arabia and other Arab and Muslim states to abandon plans to normalize relations with Israel.

Quote:

Hamas had to know that Israel would respond to its attack severely, especially given the number of hostages it took into Gaza. And it may well have been part of the group’s plan to draw Israel into a house-to-house battle in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas has built tunnels and extensive urban defenses for the specific purpose of inflicting heavy losses on any Israeli troops that enter the territory.

But the group likely felt emboldened to execute such a massive operation because it had the support of Hezbollah and perhaps other Iranian proxies. Hezbollah has already fired missiles into Israel, attempted to infiltrate Jewish communities on the Israeli side of the border, and launched drone attacks across the border.

Should Israeli ground forces enter Gaza, Hezbollah could open a second or even third front by attacking Israeli soldiers from Lebanon and from the Syrian-controlled portion of the Golan Heights. Remember Arouri’s August statement that Hamas was discussing prospects for a regional war “with all relevant parties.” The potential for horizontal escalation to other fronts is something Hamas is banking on. Even Yemen’s Houthis and Iraq’s Shiite militias have chimed in with threats of their own.