--- title: Hamas Is Not ISIS. Here's Why That Matters description: Both groups have committed horrific acts of violence but equating them could lead to bad policy decisions. canonical: https://time.com/6329776/hamas-isis-gaza/ author: Monica Marks article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-10-30T16:40:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:06:03.147Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Hamas Is Not ISIS. Here's Why That Matters og:description: Both groups have committed horrific acts of violence but equating them could lead to bad policy decisions. og:url: https://time.com/6329776/hamas-isis-gaza/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaebd4338ef769675/698a41c6db2987241a2697db/GettyImages-460681988.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Protest in Jerusalem after friday prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hamas Is Not ISIS. Here's Why That Matters twitter:description: Both groups have committed horrific acts of violence but equating them could lead to bad policy decisions. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaebd4338ef769675/698a41c6db2987241a2697db/GettyImages-460681988.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What the World Gets Wrong About Hamas > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: United Arab Emirates Calls for Cease-Fire in Gaza in Fifth Meeting of U.N. Security Council Since Oct. 7 [Watch (HLS stream): United Arab Emirates Calls for Cease-Fire in Gaza in Fifth Meeting of U.N. Security Council Since Oct. 7](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cjgi1XEd.m3u8) (2:10)  _Published 2023-10-31. The United Nations Security Council has met to discuss the Israel-Hamas war and call for a humanitarian ceasefire following the passage of a non-binding resolution in the General Assembly on Friday._ by [Monica Marks](https://time.com/author/monica-marks/) ## Monica Marks Oct 30, 2023 4:40 PM UTC  Palestinians chant slogans during the protest against Israel after they perform Friday prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Israel, on Dec. 19, 2014. Palestinians chant slogans during the protest against Israel after they perform Friday prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Israel, on Dec. 19, 2014. Salih Zeki Fazlioglu—Anadolu Agency via Getty Images by [Monica Marks](https://time.com/author/monica-marks/) ## Monica Marks Oct 30, 2023 4:40 PM UTC Since [Oct. 7](https://time.com/6321849/israel-attack/), Israelis have struggled to find words raw and powerful enough to convey the [trauma](https://time.com/6324741/israel-hostages/) of what happened that day. Many have spent the past weeks watching Israeli generals, rescue workers, and forensics experts testify about the grisly ways Hamas killed 1,400 people. Many Israelis, seeking to understand the horrors of Oct. 7, have turned to comparing Hamas to ISIS. The hashtag “#HamasisISIS” has trended on social media as Israeli leaders—including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—have frequently equated the two. But scholars of Islamist movements like myself, as well as counterterrorism officials, have long understood the comparison to be false. As Gershon Baskin, who has been Israel’s lead hostage negotiator with Hamas since 2006, told me recently: “Its acts of terrorism resemble ISIS, but they don’t have the same ideology.” The first and most important difference is that Hamas is a _Palestinian_ nationalist Islamist movement. That fused, dual identity differentiates it from ISIS, which is a transnational pan-Islamist movement that wants to gather a universal _umma_, or community of Muslim believers, into an “Islamic state” untethered from any nationalist project. Hamas, on the other hand, has more localized demands: it identifies “liberation of all of Palestine” from what it terms “the Zionist enemy” as its core goal in its 2017 Charter. There is also the inconvenient fact that ISIS “literally views Hamas as apostates” because of its support from Shia Iran, as the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Aaron Zelin recently [posted on X](https://x.com/azelin/status/1712411200200315091?s=20). A second key difference is their relative religious extremism. Hamas is religiously conservative, but it does not ruthlessly harass or kill non-Muslims in Gaza simply because of their faith or religious comportment. It tolerates women who don’t wear the hijab, people who sport tattoos, and teenagers who listen to American music. Christians and churches also coexist with Muslims in the Hamas-run enclave. None of this would have been possible under ISIS, a far more religiously extremist organization that tortured and mutilated people to compel their adherence to an ultra-radical version of Islam. But comparisons between Hamas and ISIS abound in part because they can be politically useful. Insisting that Hamas is ISIS enables Israeli leaders to muffle criticism of the country’s treatment of Palestinians, including [airstrikes](https://time.com/6326080/gaza-palestinians-grief-israel-hamas-war/) in Gaza since Oct. 7 that have left at least [8,000 people dead](https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-10-29-2023-de1a7d660ba2f6d80b3d7aeaae5bb0f3), two-thirds of them women and [children](https://time.com/6324754/gaza-photos-grief-death-destruction/). The conflation could also help win over U.S. leaders and public opinion. “Since 1973, every Israeli war has ended early, from Israel’s perspective, because of dwindling support from the U.S.,” one former Israeli diplomat told me recently. “Keeping the U.S. onside here is very important, so this is useful _hasbara_ \[public relations\] for Israel.” This rhetorical sleight of hand helps convince people that Hamas is not just a threat to Israel, but to French boardwalks or American nightclubs in the way ISIS was. **Read More:** [Israel's Vow to 'Eliminate Hamas' Is Unrealistic](https://time.com/6329637/israel-hamas-war-netanyahu-strategy/) Unlike ISIS, Hamas has existed for decades and is no mystery. It grew out of a Muslim charity established in 1973 and has a large social service wing. It split from the Palestine Liberation Organization as a result of the Oslo peace process’ failures and pursues violence against Israel. It won the 2006 Palestinian elections in Gaza and remains, along with its rival Fatah in the West Bank, one of two main political forces in the Palestinian territories. It has continuously negotiated with Israel for years on borders, prisoner swaps, and governance of Gaza. It is also, to some extent, the Frankenstein’s monster of Netanyahu, whose policies [empowered Hamas](https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-20/ty-article-opinion/.premium/a-brief-history-of-the-netanyahu-hamas-alliance/0000018b-47d9-d242-abef-57ff1be90000) in an effort to divide and weaken the Palestinian territories for years. ### More from TIME Hamas justifies horrific acts of terror as resistance to Israel’s occupation and has traditionally exploited the traumas caused by Israeli violence to grow its ranks. To recruit new members, it attends funerals and contacts bereaved relatives of family members killed in Israeli airstrikes. Its militants also capitalize on the deprivation, isolation, and prison-like conditions that have prevailed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its blockade 16 years ago. Nevertheless, Israel last week [dropped leaflets](https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-20/ty-article-opinion/.premium/a-brief-history-of-the-netanyahu-hamas-alliance/0000018b-47d9-d242-abef-57ff1be90000) that proclaimed “Hamas=ISIS” and warned civilians—who remain trapped in the Strip with [nowhere safe to hide](https://time.com/6324602/gazans-evacuation-israel-egypt/)—to “surrender.” But that approach is likely falling on deaf ears in Gaza and throughout the Arab world, where most see Hamas as a religious-nationalist Palestinian resistance movement that is directly challenging Israel’s ongoing blockade and occupation. Israel might—with time, blood, and grit—[dismantle](https://time.com/6328823/israels-4-bad-options-gaza/) Hamas’s principal political and military structures. But the suffering that Israel’s methods—which have so far included cutting off water, food, and fuel to civilians—will cause Palestinians in Gaza is astronomical. Remnants of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or a yet-to-be-formed armed movement can and will exploit these festering resentments to foment future attacks on Israel. To combat security threats effectively, Israeli leaders must resist facile comparisons and reckon with the fact that, at the heart of Hamas’s appeal among many of its recruits, lies not religious extremism but anger, anguish, and hopelessness. A hydra that feeds off of embittered youths will not be defeated by creating more destruction and despair. Ensuring that Palestinians get the freedom, dignity, and self-determination they have demanded for over 75 years would be the most effective way to ensure Israel’s long-term security. 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