The Hamas leadership lived in Qatar and not in Gaza, that is pretty much right. This tells you something, they do not want to live with the same restrictions as the Palestinian people. Despite the pain they bring on the people of Gaza, they seem to be living well with their families. So I need to get up on the leadership of Hamas as coming from Australia, we are far away from all this fighting and I need to learn who is the real upper leadership of Hamas.

Ismail Haniyeh was the leader of Hamas, previously imprisoned by Israel in 1989 after a Palestinian uprising, After three years in prison, he was exiled to an area known as no-man’s land between Lebanon and Israel. What I have learnt about the leadership of Hamas is their hatred of Israel, they want the total annihilation of Israel and they are willing to sacrifice the lives of the Palestinians living in Gaza to achieve their means.

So when Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran in July 2024, this was no loss to anyone. Whilst Hamas blames an Israeli airstrike on his apartment, this claim is not proven. An explosive device may have been smuggled in and set in his guest room and detonated when they knew he was in the apartment is a likely scenario. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran claim Haniyeh was assassinated by a projectile fired from a short range launcher, what is known is Haniyeh is no longer the leader of Hamas

They are collateral damage to them, their lives mean so little to them. Instead of using the Iranian and other Islamic funding to build Gaza into a great city, instead they built tunnels, constructed fortifications and stockpiled weapons to attack Israel. The October 7 attacks left Israel no options, they were forced into battle to rescue their hostages, this left Israel with no option.

The liberation of Gaza and the rescue of the remaining hostages has not occurred yet, so Hamas will delay handing over the final hostages because they know when that happens, they lose their leverage and lose their control. They are happy to fight to the last Palestinian, the longer they hang on, the more they believe they are winning.