Thomas Wictor

Recently a cretinous commenter on YouTube took issue with me over my defense of Operation Protective Edge. He must’ve referred to Hamas as a “ragtag militia” forty times. In the radio talk-show business, these sloganeers are known as “seminar callers,” because they’ve been taught what to say. The phrase “ragtag militia” was obviously sent out to the faithful that day. In fact, Hamas is anything but a ragtag militia. It’s a world-class transnational terrorist organization. I’ll explain how sophisticated it is.

But first…

Explosions

People have asked me—demanded quite forcefully and dismissively of me, rather—why I’m so sure that most of the damage in Gaza is being caused by Hamas IEDs instead of Israeli munitions. I’ve gone through it before, but a little common sense will give you the answer.

What are the Israelis targeting? Weapons depots, missile launching sites, personnel, combat posts, command-and-control centers, tunnel entrances, and terrorists’ houses. Do any of those require 2000-lb bombs, the only munitions that can produce the massive explosions we see?

Yes. Weapons depots should be hit with 2000-lb bombs. Missile launchers and personnel can be engaged with air-to-surface missiles fired by drones, and the other targets can be destroyed with inert bombs filled with concrete or wet sand.

When weapons depots are bombed, they create secondary explosions. IEDs unleash enormous fireballs and clouds of black smoke. This is the best photo of a joint direct attack munition (JDAM) strike I’ve ever seen. Use it as your standard reference.

Gray smoke, mushroom clouds forming, debris going skyward, and even a bomb about to hit. You can see the light-gray JDAM kit on it, which turns it into a precision-guided munition. No fireballs, no heavy black smoke, no arms of flame, no starfish-shaped explosions.

Just about the only thing in Gaza that the Israelis are hitting with explosive aerial bombs are structures that are either weapons depots or booby trapped. I realized after watching this video again that the building was rigged with an IED.

The aerial munition was an inert precision-guided bomb. It didn’t explode; there are no orange flames. If you listen carefully at 0:26, you hear two concussions. The first is the inert bomb making contact, and the second is the IED going off, producing the characteristic boiling cloud of black smoke. That’s what collapsed the building.

It’s clear that the people who filmed the aerial strike knew it was coming, because why else would they set up a camera? That’s proof that the Israelis warned them. More importantly, they didn’t flee, which means they knew the attack would be with an inert munition.

So: The horrific photos of end-of-the-world explosions in Gaza are the result of secondary explosions from weapons depots, or they’re IEDs. There’s no reason for the Israelis to be dropping bombs that by themselves would produce such gigantic detonations. The gargantuan blasts that level entire city blocks are ALL the work of Hamas. They’ve turned Gaza into an ammo dump with civilians living on top of it.

Hamas is no ragtag militia

This terrorist organization has capabilities that will shock you.

Hamas actually has sophisticated computer and networking resources in terror tunnels to detect the presence of IDF troops and to automatically fire rockets and missiles at Israeli targets—and a rich sponsor is helping them.

It’s Gulf oil powerhouse Qatar, says Aviad Dadon of Israeli cyber-security firm AdoreGroup.

Not only is Qatar footing the bill, it also trained Hamas terrorists how to use sophisticated equipment and systems to manage its extensive terror tunnel system, as well, systems to fire rockets at Israel using automatic, timed launching systems.

“Qatar looks at this war between Israel and Hamas as a proving ground,” said Dadon, a senior cyber-security adviser at several Israeli government ministries. “They are taking lessons from the performance of their cyber-equipment and will improve them even further for the next war, which will be even more cyber-oriented than this one.”

According to Dadon, Hamas has embedded sophisticated network systems inside its terror tunnels, giving operatives in command and control centers the ability to monitor events in any of the tunnels. Using sensors and other networked equipment, terrorists can quickly be notified if an IDF unit is advancing in a tunnel, allowing them to disperse quickly — and allowing the command and control staff to set off explosives when soldiers approach a booby trap.

Look at this! Could I have been right?

Very little face-to-face fighting is taking place in Gaza. Mimicking the tactics used by Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas heavily relies on two types of weaponry: anti-tank missiles and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

In addition to their antitank missiles, Hamas has armor-piercing rocket-propelled grenades. They can be fitted with tandem warheads designed to defeat reactive armor and the thickest armor plate. For this reason the Israelis developed the Trophy Active Protection System, an automated self-defense weapon that shoots rocket-propelled grenades, antitank guided missiles, and tank rounds out of the air.

That’s how dangerous Hamas is. The Israelis had to invent another science-fiction countermeasure.

Hamas uses mortars and rocket launchers as indirect-fire weapons to rain explosive shells down on Israeli troops. It has surface-to-air missiles, such as the Russian SA-7 Grail, also known as the 9K32 Strela-2.

Why haven’t we seen any photos of Hamas fighters in this war? Because they want everybody to think that they’re just barefoot militiamen. People with a predisposition to oppose Israel can then convince themselves that “disproportionate force” is being used. Another Hamas PR victory is won.

This is a First World soldier.

Kevlar helmet, radio, new uniform, and loads of ammunition. How about these guys?

You know why people call them a ragtag militia? Racism. Condescension. Those who insist that Hamas doesn’t pose a threat say that not only because they hate Israel but also because they don’t take Arabs seriously.

I take Hamas seriously. Their men are extremely professional, disciplined, and ambitious.

A highly trained Hamas operative captured by the IDF during the ongoing military campaign in the Gaza Strip told investigators that he had prepared to carry out a terror attack against Israeli civilians using a paraglider, the Shin Bet security service said Wednesday.

The Hamas detainee, who was recruited to the Islamist terror group in 2007 and joined one of the group’s special units in 2010, had taken part in a weeklong military-style exercise in Malaysia, along with 10 other members of the group, the Shin Bet said in a statement. During the exercise, which included paragliding training, the Hamas squad focused on perfecting raids from the air.

The squad conducted a second training session in the Gaza Strip earlier this year, the statement said.

Hamas also broke with its sponsor Iran and trained jihadists to fight against Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war.

“The Qassam Brigades have been training units very close to Damascus. These are specialists. They are really good,” said a Western diplomat with high-level contacts in the Assad regime and the Syrian opposition who visits Damascus regularly.

The report claims that other sources suggested that Hamas trainers were helping the FSA to dig tunnels beneath at least one contested area of Damascus in preparation for a widely expected assault on the city center.

Does a ragtag militia train rebel armies?

Posing as a cloddish militia and taking part in these stupid Pallywood productions will backfire on them, the way it did after Operation Cast Lead (December 27, 2023 to January 18, 2024). That was another war in which the press served as Hamas stenographers and reported that nearly everyone killed was a civilian. This enraged the Gazans, who accused Hamas of hiding from the Jews instead of fighting. Stung, Hamas had to admit publicly that the IDF was right and the majority of the dead were terrorists.

When this war is over, the same thing will happen. All the casualty figures the Palestinians have reported are complete fiction. The Israelis estimate they’ve killed about a thousand terrorists, which will turn out to be right. It’s not because Hamas is a ragtag militia. Hamas is in fact very, very good.

But the Israelis are better.