"Israel is only the first target. The entire planet will be under our law," an old video of Hamas Commander Mahmoud al-Zahar saying this went viral afresh amid the ongoing Israel-Palestine war triggered by Saturday’s surprise Hamas attack on Israel.
The video, which dates back to 2022, shows the Hamas Commander detailing the militant group's ambition to establish its supremacy in the entire world.
Mahmoud al-Zahar was heard saying, "We believe in what our Prophet Muhammad said, 'Allah drew the ends of the world near one another for my sake, and I have seen its eastern and western ends. The dominion of my nation would reach those ends that have been drawn near me.'"
"The entire 510 million square kilometers of Planet Earth will come under [a system] where there is no injustice, no oppression, no Zionism, no treacherous Christianity and no killings and crimes like those being committed against the Palestinians, and against the Arabs in all the Arab countries, in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other countries," he said.
What is Hamas?
Hamas, the Palestine Islamist group which governs Gaza and attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023, is an offshoot of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood in the late 1980s.
The militant group defeated its political rival Fatah (which officially renounced violence) in the 2006 elections and took over the Gaza Strip, a 41-km-long and 10-km-wide territory between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, inhabited by about 2.3 million people in one of the most densely populated regions of the world.
Since 2006, Hamas has been ruling the Gaza Strip without elections.
The United States and European Union have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization which believes in violence as a means to liberate Palestinian territories from Israel and propagates the eradication of the state of Israel.
According to American think tank Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Iran provides it with material and financial support, and Turkey reportedly harbours some of its top leaders.
According to CFR, Hamas’s military leader, Mohammed Deif, said the group undertook its assault because of Israel’s long-running blockade of Gaza, its occupation of Palestinian lands, and its alleged crimes against Muslims, including the desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
1965-born Mohammed Deif is now the supreme military commander of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. The United States Department of State added Deif to its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists on Sept 8, 2015
How is Hamas funded?
According to CFR, presently Iran is one of Hamas’s biggest benefactors, contributing funds, weapons, and training.
"Though Iran and Hamas briefly fell out after backing opposing sides in Syria’s civil war, Iran currently provides some $100 million annually [PDF] to Hamas, PIJ, and other Palestinian groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United States," it said.
Turkey is said to be another backer of Hamas—and a critic of Israel—following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rise to power in 2002. Though Ankara insists it only supports Hamas politically, it has been accused of funding Hamas's terrorism, including through aid diverted from the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, said CFR.
