Hamas has been the focus of a relentless Israeli onslaught in Gaza but with resilient and diverse finances, it is expected to have a significant chest at its disposal as the conflict drags on.

“Hamas is financially solid,” Jessica Davis, president of the Canadian group Insight Threat Intelligence, told AFP

“In the last decade, if not longer, they have been creating a resilient finance network,” she said, explaining the group had set up investments and sources of income in many countries without being disrupted.

These sources include “small businesses and real estate” in countries such as Turkiye, Sudan and Algeria, she added.

It has become “very good at developing and operating a very complex system of money changers”, said Yitzhak Gal, an Israeli expert on the Palestinian economy, explaining the exchanges run through Turkiye, the UAE, Europe and the United States.

“Despite its atrocities, Hamas seems to have gained support amongst certain population segments internationally as a perceived resistance vanguard,” Lucas Webber, co-founder of the specialist website Militant Wire, explained.