Nearly two years after the October 7 attacks inside Israel, Hamas remains central to Middle East politics. Despite Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, which has left more than 64,000 Palestinians dead and nearly two million displaced, the movement has neither collapsed nor lost its grip on large parts of the enclave. Instead, it continues to fight as a guerrilla force and commands significant support among Palestinians. The recent Israeli strike on a Hamas negotiating office in Doha, killing six, once again placed the group in the international spotlight, highlighting its enduring role in both resistance and diplomacy.
Despite overwhelming Israeli firepower, cutting-edge surveillance, and U.S. support, Hamas continues to function inside Gaza. Entire neighborhoods lie in rubble, tens of thousands are dead, yet Hamas fighters re-emerge from tunnels, ambush Israeli forces, and even shape ceasefire talks. Israel’s promise to “eliminate Hamas” has become an elusive goal.
Why Israel’s strategy has failed
Israel has long relied on leadership decapitations—targeted killings of senior Hamas figures—as a counterterrorism tool. From the Second Intifada to the present war, its Apache helicopters, drones, and covert agents have assassinated dozens of Hamas commanders. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Abdul Aziz al-Rantisi, Salah Shahada, and, most recently, Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran were all killed in such strikes. Each time, Hamas mourned, regrouped, and replaced leaders swiftly.
Scholars of counterinsurgency agree that these tactics rarely bring long-term results against entrenched groups. Hamas’ bureaucratic structure, spanning political, military, and social wings, ensures continuity. When leaders fall, others step up. In fact, research shows that older, bureaucratized organizations are highly resilient to decapitation, and Hamas, now in its fourth decade, fits that pattern.
Instead of weakening Hamas, high-profile assassinations often strengthen its legitimacy. Civilian casualties accompanying such strikes inflame Palestinian anger, fuel recruitment, and portray Hamas leaders as martyrs. Polls conducted in 2025 show over 80 percent of Palestinians supporting Hamas’ resistance, even amid catastrophic destruction in Gaza.
Hamas as a movement, not just a militia
Hamas’ endurance lies not only in military tactics but also in its dual identity as a political and social movement. Since its founding in 1987 as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, it has built ministries, schools, clinics, and religious networks across Gaza. This embedded presence allows it to command loyalty far beyond its fighters.
The 2006 legislative elections, where Hamas won a parliamentary majority, cemented its authority in Gaza. Since then, despite repeated Israeli offensives, Hamas has maintained de facto control. Its governance functions mean that the group is not simply viewed as an armed group but as part of daily Palestinian life. This role complicates Israel’s aim of destruction.
More importantly, Hamas frames survival itself as victory. Every war, from 2008 to the current conflict, has left Gaza devastated, but Hamas emerges politically stronger. Polls show Palestinians overwhelmingly blame Israel, not Hamas, for their suffering. By fighting back, however costly, Hamas presents itself as the only force refusing to capitulate to occupation.
Guerrilla warfare and tactical evolution
Militarily, Hamas has adapted to Israel’s overwhelming power with guerrilla tactics. Its decentralized cells exploit Gaza’s dense urban terrain, tunnel networks, and destroyed buildings to ambush Israeli troops. Reports from Beit Hanoun and Khan Younis show fighters resurfacing in areas Israel claimed to have “cleared.”
Hamas also leverages hostages, using them as bargaining chips in ceasefire negotiations. Combined with its rocket arsenal, though diminished, still active, these tactics keep Israel under pressure. The movement’s tunnel system, repeatedly bombed but never eradicated, remains both a physical and symbolic artery of resistance.
Israel claims to have dismantled most Hamas battalions and killed over 14,000 fighters. Yet renewed clashes and reconstituted units demonstrate the limits of such claims. As security analyst Patrick Johnston once noted, “high-value targeting is ineffective at best and counterproductive at worst.” Hamas’ survival validates that view.
Faith, ideology, and popular legitimacy
At its core, Hamas’ resilience is ideological. The group frames its struggle not only as national liberation but as a religious duty, tied to Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Islamic concept of jihad. Its fighters are not paid mercenaries but men and women radicalized by personal loss and collective despair.
Every bombed home or killed child becomes part of a cycle of revenge and resistance. Analyst Adam Shatz puts it starkly: Hamas “feeds on despair produced by the occupation.” To Palestinians, the ruins of Gaza are not Hamas’ failure; they are evidence of Israel’s crimes.
Civilian suffering has also shifted global perception. What Israel brands as “terrorism,” many now view as resistance against genocide and apartheid. The paradox is clear: mass civilian deaths weaken Hamas militarily but strengthen it politically and morally.
Lessons from history, warnings for the future
Hamas’ trajectory resembles past moments when targeted killings backfired. The assassinations of Yassin and al-Rantisi in 2004, for example, weakened Hamas temporarily but fueled mass outrage and ultimately bolstered its support. Similarly, botched Israeli attempts, such as the 1997 poisoning of Khaled Mashal in Jordan, not only failed but forced concessions.
Today, polls confirm that Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank overwhelmingly back Hamas’ strategy of armed resistance. Most blame Israel, not Hamas, for the war’s devastation. The majority views Hamas not as a liability but as the last remaining shield against occupation.
Israel sought to erase Hamas after October 7. Nearly two years later, despite assassinations, battalion claims, and Gaza’s devastation, Hamas endures. It survives because it is more than a militia; it is a bureaucracy, a social system, and above all, a symbol of resistance.
From the tunnels of Gaza to the negotiation tables in Doha, Hamas stands tall in the Palestinian imagination. As long as Palestinians live under occupation and see no political horizon, force alone will not extinguish the movement. Hamas’ survival underscores a blunt truth: you can bomb a city, but you cannot bomb an idea.
