Editing Hamas (section)

==Qassam Brigades (military wing)==
{{main|Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades}}
[[File:Flickr - Israel Defense Forces - Weapons Found in a Mosque During Cast Lead (2).jpg|upright|thumb|Weapons found in a mosque during [[Operation Cast Lead]], according to the IDF. ]]
The [[Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades]] is Hamas' military wing.<ref name="Qassam logo" >{{cite web| title= Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. The military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) | date= 18 December 2023 | url= https://www.aljazeera.net/encyclopedia/2014/2/10/كتائب-عز-الدين-القسام | publisher= [[Al Jazeera Arabic]] | quote= (image caption) {{langx|ar| شعار كتائب عز الدين القسام الجناح العسكري لحركة المقاومة الإسلامية حماس (الجزيرة) || Logo of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). }} | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240918231927/https://www.aljazeera.net/encyclopedia/2014/2/10/%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%A8-%D8%B9%D8%B2-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%85 | archive-date= 18 September 2024 | access-date= 18 September 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Beaumont |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Beaumont (journalist) |date=12 October 2023 |title=What is Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza? |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/12/what-is-hamas-the-militant-group-that-rules-gaza |access-date=16 October 2023 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=18 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240318031644/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/12/what-is-hamas-the-militant-group-that-rules-gaza |url-status=live }}</ref> While the number of members is known only to the Brigades leadership, Israel estimates the Brigades have a core of several hundred members who receive [[Military training|military style training]], including training in Iran and in [[Syria]] (before the Syrian Civil War).{{sfn|Guidère|2012|p=173}} Additionally, the brigades have an estimated 10,000–17,000 operatives,{{sfn|Shitrit|2015|p=71}}{{sfn|Najib|Friedrich|2007|p=106}} other sources say 15,000–40,000 militants,<ref>{{cite book |last1=(IISS) |first1=International Institute for Strategic Studies |title=The Military Balance, 2018, Vol. 118, No. 1, February 2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781857439557 |date=14 February 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Christian Chesnot, [https://www.franceculture.fr/geopolitique/michel-goya-militairement-le-hamas-monte-en-gamme-depuis-2010 Michel Goya : "Militairement, le Hamas monte en gamme depuis 2010"], ''France Culture'', 18 May 2021.</ref>{{undue weight inline|1=Conflicting estimates of size of Qassam Brigades|reason=no indication on relative reliability of these different figures|date=July 2024}} forming a backup force whenever circumstances call for reinforcements for the Brigade. Recruitment training lasts for two years.{{sfn|Guidère|2012|p=173}} The group's ideology outlines its aim as the liberation of Palestine and the restoration of Palestinian rights under the dispensations set forth in the Qur'an, and this translates into three policy priorities:

<blockquote>To evoke the spirit of Jihad (Resistance) among Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims; to defend Palestinians and their land against the Zionist occupation and its manifestations; to liberate Palestinians and their land that was usurped by the Zionist occupation forces and settlers.{{sfn|Najib|Friedrich|2007|p=105}}</blockquote>

According to its official stipulations, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades' military operations are to be restricted to operating only inside Palestine, engaging with Israeli soldiers,{{efn|'Consistent attacks on army units by Hamas activists are as new as the use of anti-tank missiles against civilian homes by the Israeli military.'{{sfn|Roy|1993|p=21}}}} and in exercising the right of self-defense against armed settlers. They are to avoid civilian targets, to respect the enemy's humanity by refraining from mutilation, defacement or excessive killing, and to avoid targeting Westerners either in the occupied zones or beyond.{{sfn|Najib|Friedrich|2007|pp=105–06}}

[[File:2013 Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades exercise (8).jpg|thumb|Exercise of al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza City, 27 January 2013]]
Down to 2007, the Brigades are estimated to have lost some 800 operatives in conflicts with Israeli forces. The leadership has been consistently undermined by targeted assassinations. Aside from [[Yahya Ayyash]] (5 January 1996), it has lost [[Emad Akel]] (24 November 1993), [[Salah Shehade]] (23 July 2002), [[Ibrahim al-Makadmeh]] (8 March 2003), [[Ismail Abu Shanab]] (21 August 2003), [[Ahmed Yassin]] (22 March 2004), and [[Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi]] (17 April 2004).{{sfn|Najib|Friedrich|2007|p=107}}{{sfn|Hueston|Pierpaoli|Zahar|2014|p=67}}

The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades groups its fighters in 4–5 man cells, which in turn are integrated into companies and battalions. Unlike the political section, which is split between an internal and external structure, the Brigades are under a local Palestinian leadership, and disobedience with the decisions taken by the political leadership have been relatively rare.{{sfn|Najib|Friedrich|2007|pp=107–08}}

Although the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades are an integral part of Hamas, the exact nature of the relationship is hotly debated.<ref name="Mandaville"/>{{sfn|Levitt|2008|pp=89ff.}} They appear to operate at times independently of Hamas, exercising a certain autonomy.{{sfn|Davis|2004|p=100}}{{sfn|Herrick|2011|p=?}}<ref>{{cite book |author1=John L.Esposito |title=Islam and Violence |date=1 August 1998 |publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]] |page=231|isbn=978-0-8156-2774-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SlhxoTHLxeMC&pg=PA231 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240426014404/https://books.google.com/books?id=SlhxoTHLxeMC&pg=PA231#v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=26 April 2024}}</ref> Some cells have independent links with the external leadership, enabling them to bypass the hierarchical command chain and political leadership in Gaza.{{sfn|Gunning|2007|pp=123–55|ps=: p. 134}} Ilana Kass and Bard O'Neill, likening Hamas's relationship with the Brigades to the political party [[Sinn Féin]]'s relationship to the military arm of the [[Irish Republican Army]], quote a senior Hamas official as stating: "The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigade is a separate armed military wing, which has its own leaders who do not take their orders from Hamas and do not tell us of their plans in advance."{{sfn|Kass|O'Neill|1997|p=267}}{{efn|[[Matthew Levitt]] on the other hand claims that Hamas's welfare institutions act as a mere façade or front for the financing of terrorism, and dismisses the idea of two wings as a 'myth'.{{sfn|Herrick|2011|p=179}} He cites Ahmed Yassin stating in 1998: "We can not separate the wing from the body. If we do so, the body will not be able to fly. Hamas is one body."{{sfn|Levitt|2006|p=24}}}}

=== Gaza forces, October 2023 ===
During the 2023 Gaza war, the IDF published its intelligence about the Hamas military in the Strip.<ref name="ToI23">{{Cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/gallant-hamas-has-lost-control-in-gaza-troops-kill-gunmen-who-fired-from-hospital/|title=Gallant: Hamas has lost control in Gaza; gunmen who fired from hospital entrance killed &#124; The Times of Israel|website=[[The Times of Israel]]|date=13 November 2023|access-date=14 November 2023|archive-date=14 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231114074143/https://www.timesofisrael.com/gallant-hamas-has-lost-control-in-gaza-troops-kill-gunmen-who-fired-from-hospital/|url-status=live}}</ref> They put the strength of the Qassam Brigades there at the start of the war at 30,000 fighters, organised by area in five brigades, consisting in total of 24 battalions and c. 140 companies.<ref name=ToI23/> Each regional brigade had a number of strongholds and outposts, and included specialised arrays for rocket firing, anti-tank missiles, air defenses, snipers, and engineering.<ref name=ToI23/>