Hamas: Two Wings — Same Bloodshed
- The Fiction of Separation
Western officials and media executives keep trying to split Hamas into “political” and “military” wings. That distinction isn’t nuance; it’s intellectual stubbornness that blurs accountability and warps policy. Hamas itself has long said the quiet part out loud: the organization is a single organism.
“We cannot separate the wing from the body. If we do so, the body will not be able to fly. Hamas is one body.”— Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas’s founder
Experts Confirm the Reality
Counterterrorism scholarship and government designations have reached the same conclusion. Matthew Levitt, a leading Hamas expert, has documented how the group’s “political” leaders direct, enable, and finance violence; he cites Hamas commanders and financial records showing the intermingling of dawa (social/charity) funds with militant budgets. In plain English: the so-called political apparatus is not separate from terror; it is terror by other means.
“For Hamas, political activities are an extension of terrorism… the difference between the wings is often a fiction.”— Matthew Levitt, The Washington Institute
Governments Reject the “Two Wings” Delusion
This is why governments that once toyed with the “wings” fiction have reversed course. The United Kingdom formally outlawed Hamas in its entirety in November 2021. New Zealand, which had long listed only the Qassam Brigades, designated the entire organization after October 7. Australia followed suit in 2022, replacing its prior, brigades-only listing. The European Union, for its part, lists Hamas on its terrorism list and, in 2024, created a dedicated sanctions regime targeting Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The United States has treated Hamas as a single terrorist entity for decades, reflected across the National Counterterrorism Center’s profile and Treasury sanctions actions against “political” operatives and financiers.
October 7: The Mask Comes Off
Nor is this just a legal abstraction. The October 7 massacre — one of the deadliest acts of international terrorism in recent history — was not the work of a rogue “military wing” freelancing away from a benign “political leadership.” It was the culmination of a long game in which governance and dawa structures were bent toward building and sustaining militant capacity. CTC-West Point analysis recounts internal correspondence where early Hamas operatives skimmed charity budgets for military expenses, and describes the organization’s own view that its political, social, and military activities are “mutually reinforcing.”
Haniyeh’s Celebration in Doha
The façade of separation collapsed on October 7 itself. In Doha, Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh and senior colleagues were filmed watching the assault unfold, smiling, and then bowing in prayer. Haniyeh declared:
“Allah, please bestow your support and glory on our people and nation.”— Ismail Haniyeh, October 7, 2023
This was not the language of a detached politician. It was the sanctification of slaughter. Hamas’s political bureau did not distance itself from the violence; it exalted it.
The Danger of Dishonest Denial
Yet even in 2025, elite institutions still stumble. In July, BBC News chief Deborah Turness told staff there was a difference between politicians in the Hamas-run government and members of the group’s military wing — a claim that immediately ran into the brick wall of UK law and drew a wave of criticism.
“This directly contradicts UK law, which regards Hamas as terrorist in its entirety.”— Danny Cohen, former BBC executive
Whatever the intent, that kind of framing launders the organization’s integrated strategy and undermines the clarity democratic societies need when evaluating sources, narratives, and risks.
We Must Call a Thing By Its Name
The policy stakes are real. Treating Hamas “politicians” as distinct legitimizes an apparatus that allocates resources, directs operations, and runs propaganda on behalf of the same movement that plans kidnappings and massacres. As Levitt and others have shown, “political” figures routinely task cells, move money, and supervise attacks; they are not bystanders to violence but managers of it. That is precisely why sanctions and terror listings increasingly target leaders and facilitators across the organization, not just uniformed fighters.
“The Islamist terrorist group Hamas has… become a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK in its entirety.”— UK Home Office, Nov. 26, 2021
Retire the Delusion
There are hard debates to be had about war aims, civilian protection, and future governance. But one debate we should retire finally is the make-believe taxonomy of “wings.” Hamas told us what it is; counterterrorism experts corroborated it; and governments from London to Wellington adjusted their laws accordingly. Persisting in the wings fiction isn’t sophistication — it’s self-deception, and the cost of that self-deception is paid in policy failure and public confusion.
