[troupo]

> Hamas, after years of being supressed, is a group of militants with handguns.

I can't believe people still peddle this bullshit. Hamas are a well organised and a well-funded terrorist organisation that is also the governing body in Gaza.

So anything from "back alley" support from Iran to fingers in hundreds of millions in yearly humanitarian aid. I wouldn't be surprised if Hamas had total funding near the same level as IDF.

You don't get a separate "rocket attacks on Israel" Wikipedia entry with "just guns": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_... You don't get to fire Russian- and Iranian-built Grad, Katyusha, or Fajr-5 and pretend "it's just a group of militants with guns"

[ebbi]

I'm assuming that bit you're quoting 'militants with handguns' was hyperbolic, but it serves its purpose to compare and contrast the two.

How much damage has those Russian and Iranian built rockets done in Israel? How many tanks do Hamas have? How many fighter jets do Hamas have? How many nuclear weapons do Hamas have?

The fact is, Hamas is a product of being a military in a territory that is subject to blockade by Israel. You can say Israel left Gaza in [insert year], but the fact of the matter is that a blockade has been there up to now.

And so if Hamas was a democratically elected government of Gaza, with the opportunity of becoming a 'Singapore' of the Middle East and having full agency (as Israel claims), why is it outside the bounds of reasonableness that they do acquire weapons from Russia and Iran, just like any other country in the world does for their own military needs?

[troupo]

> How much damage has those Russian and Iranian built rockets done in Israel?

Enough for Israel to build Iron Dome. Iron Dome literally exists because these "poor militants with handguns" were firing hundreds of rockets per month at targets in Israel. From Wikipedia:

--- start quote ---

In January 2008 the border between Gaza and Egypt was breached by Hamas. It allowed them to bring in Russian and Iranian-made rockets with a larger range. In the first half of 2008, the number of attacks rose sharply, consistently totaling several hundred per month.

--- end quote ---

The rest of your message is a non-sequitur on top of non-sequitur.

Hamas is not, and never has been "militants with handguns". They are, and have always been, a well organised organisation with huge funding.

Agan. Wikipedia.

--- start quote ---

Hamas has reportedly accumulated over $12 million per month from taxes on goods imported from Egypt into Gaza as of 2021. Iran provides some $100 million annually to Hamas and other Palestinian groups

--- end quote ---

These are just some estimates. Actual numbers are likely to be significantly higher.

[Aeolun]

> 100 million annually to Hamas and other Palestinian groups

Oh my goodness. 100 million? They can afford one tenth of a JSF!

To just immediately quote the first thing that google spit out in it’s AI search thing:

> A mid-size hospital (defined as having 100 to 499 beds) typically has an annual operating budget of several hundred million dollars.

After some research, it seems that the budget of Israel’s military is about 3x Hamas’s entire annual operating budget.