Hamas's unholy jihad

This article explores the impact of Muslim Brotherhood and jihadist theorists on the making of Hamas's 7 October 2023, assault. By way of doing so, it discusses Hamas's historic, ideological, and organisational connections to the Muslim Brotherhood before exploring jihadist warfare doctrine to liberate al-Quds (Jerusalem) from 'Zionist occupation', which shaped Hamas's covenant and may have influenced its military strategy including the 10/7 massacres. The article concludes that Hamas's ideology is closely aligned with most extremist factions of jihadist and Muslim Brotherhood thought and that efforts to characterise the organisation's terrorist activities as motivated by national considerations are totally misconceived.