Searching for members of the military wing of Hamas by entering streets and houses throughout Gaza may be an impossible objective. Not to mention an operation that could last a very long time, with attendant civilian suffering. What may be termed MWH (Military Wing of Hamas) is nestled inside the civilian population of the strip in such a pervasive manner that picking them out individual by individual is proving a difficult task. Hamas has learnt from ISIS how to use the civilian population as a shield, which is why the war on ISIS involved so many civilian casualties. Just as is taking place in Gaza since the second week of October, street after street, house after house in towns where ISIS ruled were converted to unlivable rubble. Eventually, barring a few, none of the conscripts of that collective of terrorists remained in thrall to the fiction that even if they were to endure hell today, they would tomorrow in the afterlife experience the pleasures of heaven. Of course, as with Hamas, the top leadership of the collective lived in a manner that was far from hellish, often in safe destinations exactly the way many leaders of Hamas have been doing for years. The security establishments of the countries that host them know who they are, and much of what they are up to. Money for the projects planned (and some carried out, as on 7 October) travel via “charitable” organisations that have noble objectives in their charters and literature, concealing the actual purpose of such “charity”. For years, capitals that routinely use financial and other sanctions to degrade the capabilities of target entities have ignored those who have been giving money to outlets that ensure an onward flow to Hamas. After 7 October, such an avoidance of the necessity of taking action against such channels of funds and support make those refusing to use sanctions almost an accessory to the terror activities of Hamas.
Just as was the case in the battle against the ISIS terror collective, it is essential that those involved in hosting and in financing the various overground offshoots of Hamas be made to pay a price for being a channel of assistance to a terror machine. Most of the population of Gaza have had no role in such a task, and yet it is they who are paying a terrible price for the terror attack conducted by Hamas in Israel on 7 October. It is those luxuriating in yachts and flying around the world in monogrammed aircraft that need to pay. Those who look the other way when entities involved in the funding and other support of Hamas operate, and who have the power to put a stop to such assistance, need to find their bank accounts frozen and their movements restricted. Their friends and relatives need to be enquired into so as to ascertain whether any of them too are assisting Hamas through looking the other way while the work of replenishing the coffers and stores of the terror collective continues unhindered. More than a scimitar wielded by the IDF, capable though that military is, what is needed is the scalpel of sanctions that cut away the web of facilitators of the terror machine and who yet lead lives undisturbed by the security agencies. Its indulgence to institutions such as GHQ Rawalpindi, including by removing Pakistan from the Grey List rather than placing that country on the Black List, has made the FATF an instrument of dubious value in the war on terror. There are several who are unhappy at the way in which the civilian population of Gaza and in parts of the West Bank are suffering. The sooner the Military Wing of Hamas is dismantled, the quicker will the Calvary of the civilian population of Gaza end. Financial and other sanctions on those who permit operatives of Hamas to operate freely in some locations would end the war in Gaza much quicker than if such instruments continue to remain unused, despite the danger of a multiplication of terrorist incidents that could arise, were the Military Wing of Hamas not dismantled. The sooner this takes place, the better. Sanctions are needed on already identified wealthy facilitators of Hamas by the US, the EU, the UK and others who have thus far failed to use the sanctions weapon to better protect lives in Gaza.
MDN