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Dec 30, 2019 · DECEMBER 30, 2019 21:26. Jpost editorial logo. (photo credit: JPOST STAFF) As 2019 draws to a close, Israel appears to be on the verge of reaching a new long-term ceasefire deal with Hamas in...
Oct 7, 2023 · 5 April 2024. Getty Images. Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas have been at war since early October. It began when Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented attack on Israel from Gaza -...
Oct 10, 2023 · Explainer. A Guide to Palestinian and Other Anti-Israel Factions. Hamas is not the only group vying to lead the Palestinians—or the fight against Israel. By Alexandra Sharp, the World Brief...
May 12, 2021 · Published: May 12, 2021 12:54pm EDT. The deadly escalation of violence across Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, in which at least 40 people have been killed and hundreds injured, has demonstrated...
- Julie M Norman
- Executive Summary
- “Pwn” Goal
- Introduction
- Overview of Hamas’s Strategy
- Hamas’s Cyber Strategy
- Where Do Hamas’s Cyber Operations Go from Here?
- Conclusion
- About The Author
Cyberspace as a domain of conflict often creates an asymmetric advantage for comparably less capable or under-resourced actors to compete against relatively stronger counterparts.1Michael Schmitt, “Normative Voids and Asymmetry in Cyberspace,” Just Security, December 29, 2014, https://www.justsecurity.org/18685/normative-voids-asymmetry-cyberspace/...
In the summer of 2018, as teams competed in the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) World Cup in Russia, Israeli soldiers followed the excitement on their smartphones from an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) base thousands of miles away. Like others in Israel, the soldiers were using a new Android application called Golden Cup, avail...
The asymmetric advantage afforded by cyberspace is leading a panoply of non-state actors to acquire and use offensive cyber capabilities to compete against relatively stronger counterparts. The cyber threat from criminal ransomware organizations has been well documented, yet a range of other non-state actors traditionally involved in armed kinetic ...
Principles and philosophy
Despite Hamas’s maximalist public position on Israel, the organization’s leaders are rational actors who logically understand the longevity and power of the State of Israel. Where the group can make meaningful inroads is in Palestinian politics, trying to win public support from the more secular, ruling Fatah party and positioning itself to lead a future Palestinian state. Looming uncertainty about the future of an already weak Palestinian Authority, led by the aging President Mahmoud Abbas,...
Terrorism strategy
Hamas’s terror tactics have included suicide bombings,21“16 Killed in Suicide Bombings on Buses in Israel: Hamas Claims Responsibility,” CNN, September 1, 2004, http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/08/31/mideast/. indiscriminate rocket fire,22“Hamas Rocket Fire a War Crime, Human Rights Watch Says,” BBC News, August 12, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-58183968. sniper attacks,23Isabel Kershner, “Hamas Militants Take Credit for Sniper Attack,” New York Times, March 20, 2007...
Strategic restraint
Each of these terror tactics has the powerful potential to generate publicity with Israelis, Palestinians, and audiences elsewhere. However, unrestrained terrorism comes at a cost, something Hamas understands. Hamas must weigh its desire to carry out attacks with the concomitant risks, including an unfavorable international perception, military retaliation, infrastructure damage, and internal economic and political pressures. Hamas addresses this in a number of ways. First, it limits its oper...
The nature of the cyber domain allows weak actors, like Hamas, to engage and inflict far more damage on powerful actors, like Israel, than would otherwise be possible in conventional conflict.50Andrew Phillips, “The Asymmetric Nature of Cyber Warfare,” USNI News, October 14, 2012, https://news.usni.org/2012/10/14/asymmetric-nature-cyber-warfare.Thi...
As outlined in its founding charter, as long as Hamas exists, it will place a premium on influencing audiences—friendly, adversarial, and undecided—and mobilizing them to bend political outcomes toward its ultimate objectives.89Israel Foreign Ministry, “The Charter of Allah: The Platform of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas),” Information Divi...
Remarking on Hamas’s creative cyber campaigns, a lieutenant colonel in the IDF’s Cyber Directorate noted, “I’m not going to say they are not powerful or weak. They are interesting.”91Neri Zilber, “Inside the Cyber Honey Traps of Hamas,” The Daily Beast, March 1, 2020, https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-cyber-honey-traps-of-hamas.Observers sho...
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank several individuals, without whose support this report would not look the same. First and foremost, thank you to Trey Herr and Emma Schroeder, director and associate director of the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative, respectively, for helping from the start of this effort by participating in collaborative brainstorming sessions and providing extensive editorial feedback throughout. The author also owes a debt of gratitude to several individuals for...
The Fatah–Hamas conflict (Arabic: النزاع بين فتح وحماس, romanized: an-Nizāʿ bayna Fataḥ wa-Ḥamās) is an ongoing political and strategic conflict between Fatah and Hamas, the two main Palestinian political parties in the Palestinian territories, leading to the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.
Oct 12, 2017 · Hamas – Armed resistance. Fatah – Negotiations. Objectives: Hamas – Does not recognise Israel, but accepts a Palestinian state on 1967 borders. Fatah – Recognises Israel, wants to build a ...
