A movement built on diversion
To understand why so many of Israel’s leaders and ordinary citizens want to eradicate Hamas, you first need to look at how Hamas has operated with the aid and infrastructure meant for Gaza’s people. Billions of dollars in international support and Israeli concessions have been pumped into the Strip over decades. Yet, instead of using those resources to build housing, hospitals, and livelihoods, Hamas has repeatedly diverted them into weapons stockpiles, tunnels, and its own power structures. This isn’t just poor governance – it is seen by Israelis as a betrayal of the very idea of peace and coexistence.
Infrastructure turned into weaponry
There is no clearer example of this betrayal than Hamas’s manipulation of civilian infrastructure. Industrial piping and water mains provided by international donors were cut up to build rockets. Hospitals and schools, symbols of aid and social progress, have been accused of being turned into command centres or storage for arms. To Israelis, this amounts to proof that Hamas views civilian suffering not as a tragedy to be solved, but as a political weapon to be leveraged.
Aid as a power tool
Hamas’s grip on Gaza is also sustained by controlling the flow of humanitarian supplies. Food, blankets, even ambulances provided by the UN have, at times, been commandeered or re-allocated to its fighters. By blending its military machine with humanitarian systems, Hamas has blurred the lines between civilian and combatant. For Israel, this makes every aid truck and every relief initiative a potential threat, not an act of peace.
There have been reports of aid warehouses raided, convoys diverted, and reconstruction funds siphoned away from housing into the building of tunnels. To ordinary Israelis, this reinforces the sense that every international concession is turned into yet another weapon aimed at their children.
Brutality towards its own people
But Hamas’s rule is not only defined by its fight with Israel. Inside Gaza, Hamas has imposed a climate of fear. Political opponents are silenced, sometimes violently. Journalists are harassed. Dissidents risk imprisonment, torture, or worse. Even ordinary citizens who question the movement’s decisions find themselves at the mercy of a regime that values obedience over dialogue. The result is a population trapped not only by blockade and conflict, but also by the iron fist of the very rulers claiming to defend them.
The brutality extends beyond politics. There are repeated reports of Hamas using intimidation to enforce its grip on power, armed raids on families, public punishments to enforce “discipline,” and the crushing of even the faintest whiff of dissent. In a territory that desperately needs hope, Hamas has instead cultivated fear as its most reliable currency.
An ideology steeped in hatred
What drives this? Hamas’s founding charter is steeped in uncompromising hostility towards Jews. It has invoked conspiracy theories about Jewish control of the world, echoing tropes from the darkest chapters of history. While some of its leaders have tried to soften the rhetoric in international forums, the ideological core remains: a belief that the State of Israel has no right to exist and that violent “resistance” is not only justified but sacred. For Israelis, this is not simply political opposition, it is existential.
The poisonous narratives are reinforced in propaganda and sermons that portray Jews not as human beings with rights, but as enemies to be eradicated. This is not merely rhetoric, it fuels the violence, and it convinces ordinary Israelis that Hamas cannot be a partner in peace, only a perpetual threat.
Views on women and LGBT people
Beyond its military campaign, Hamas governs society according to a deeply conservative and repressive interpretation of Islamism. Women are expected to conform to rigid roles, domestic, submissive, and silent in politics. Female voices are underrepresented in governance, and when women do participate in public life, it is often under strict surveillance or tokenism, not genuine empowerment. The space for women to exercise independence – whether through education, work, or personal freedom, is suffocated by Hamas’s hardline vision.
LGBT Palestinians face even harsher realities. Homosexuality is criminalised in Gaza under Hamas’s rule, and those suspected of being gay risk harassment, imprisonment, or worse. There have been credible reports of torture, public shaming, and forced exile for LGBT people. In a world where equal rights are a growing standard, Hamas stands openly against them – enforcing repression and fear rather than tolerance or dignity. For Israelis observing this, it confirms that Hamas is not only hostile to Jews, but also opposed to basic human freedoms that Israel, for all its flaws, guarantees.
The October 7th shock
All of this was brought into horrifying focus on 7 October 2023, when Hamas launched its most brutal attack on Israel in decades. Gunmen stormed across the border, massacring civilians in their homes and at a music festival, murdering families in cold blood, and abducting men, women, and children into Gaza. The killings were indiscriminate: elderly Holocaust survivors, babies, teenagers – all became victims.
For Israelis, October 7th was not merely a terror attack; it was a revelation of Hamas’s true nature. The images of civilians slaughtered, of women assaulted, of hostages paraded through Gaza’s streets crystallised the conviction that Hamas is not a political actor but a death cult. Any lingering arguments about coexistence or negotiated peace were obliterated in the bloodshed of that day.
Why Israel wants Hamas destroyed
When Israelis watch Hamas pour money into tunnels instead of electricity, rockets instead of schools, and military salaries instead of jobs, they see a movement that prioritises war over life. When they hear its leaders spew rhetoric demonising Jews, they see not a negotiator but an enemy bent on annihilation. And when they witness Hamas brutalising its own people – whether women forced into silence, LGBT individuals hunted in fear, or political opponents crushed – they see a regime built on repression rather than governance.
October 7th cemented this view: that Hamas is not a partner for peace but an existential enemy. For Israel, crushing Hamas is not just about security – it is about preventing the cycle of aid abuse, repression, and endless rocket fire from repeating itself. It is about ensuring that international investment is not turned into missiles. It is about recognising that peace cannot grow in soil poisoned by hate, misogyny, and persecution.
The conclusion for Israel’s leadership is therefore stark: as long as Hamas exists, aid will be exploited, civilians will remain in peril, and coexistence will be impossible. This belief underpins the call not just to weaken Hamas, but to crush it entirely.
The greatest tragedy is that ordinary Gazans now endure both war and famine, caught in a nightmare not of their making. As Hamas pours resources into rockets and tunnels, the population is left without food, medicine, or shelter. International aid that should be feeding children is instead suffocated by conflict, corruption, and diversion, leaving families to scavenge amid rubble and starvation. With the Strip shattered by bombardment and aid convoys restricted, parents are forced to watch their children waste away from hunger while leaders hide underground. The result is a humanitarian catastrophe in which the very people Hamas claims to defend are the ones paying the heaviest price.
