Today, The Hamas organization is celebrating its 35th anniversary. The terrorist group has planned rallies all over Judea, Samaria, and The Gaza Strip for the occasion. The festivities could have not been at a worse time for Hamas, which has been defunded from its Iranian sources, according to Lebanese and Israeli reports.
Hamas, along with other terrorist organizations such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) heavily rely on Iranian funding. The money is typically used to pay the armed militants assigned to the different organizations, along with carrying out various attacks on Israel. Lebanese reports claim due to the ongoing rioting in Iran, known as the “anti-Hijab protest”, funding for all Palestinian organizations has been frozen until further notice.
Reportedly Hamas, PIJ, and the PFLP are facing a financial crisis, unable to pay the salaries of their leaders and cover the cost of their "various activities" without Iranian funding. It's unknown why Iran halted funding, but it may be related to the ongoing protests in Iran. pic.twitter.com/2TBxIJaqge
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) December 12, 2022
A PIJ member spoke to local reporters of his fears amid the ongoing rioting in Iran, leading to months of no cashflow from the Ayatollah’s regime. “We are concerned the protests will also affect the future of Iran's financial and military support.” Meanwhile, the lack of funds is already having an impact on the organizations. Several prominent 'pro-Palestine' social media accounts have gone silent since November 18th. These accounts, while appearing to be ordinary people, are in fact part of a strategy to flood Palestine content and messaging across many different platforms.
Or, might have something to do with Iran cutting funds to several Palestinian factions, as reported by Al-Quds unnamed sources n Lebanon?
— serachbatsarah (@serachbatsarah) December 13, 2022
Nevertheless, Hamas plans on celebrating as usual, without reminding many of its ranked members they will be receiving no salary. Huge banners were hoisted in the Gaza Strip, the prominent figure on them being Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, one of the founders of the Hamas organization.
This is the backdrop of Hamas' 35th anniversary rally Wednesday.
— Elder of Ziyon 🇮🇱 (@elderofziyon) December 14, 2022
Flags for every Muslim country are shown in Jerusalem.
Which proves that Palestinians don't care about ruling Jerusalem themselves - they just want to make sure Jews don't.
Which is Palestinianism in a nutshell. pic.twitter.com/TpO3haEVCg
The main event in the Gaza Strip was scheduled for Wednesday at noon, inside Elatiba Square in Gaza. Hamas typically expects the participation of massive crowds in these events when Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, is expected to speak.
The head of the political bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, who lives in Qatar, spoke Tuesday ahead of the events. "There are strategic priorities that Hamas will work on in the coming period with all our people and factions from home and abroad. The first importance is that our Palestinian cause is an indivisible whole. The second priority is Jerusalem, as the focus of the conflict with the occupation and what brings together all the characteristics of the struggle and the unifying address for our people and to the nation at any time."
The Palestinian security forces along with Fatah have been arresting Hamas operatives to prevent a significant display of strength by Hamas in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas. Hamas condemned the activities of Fatah and demanded the organization stop the arrests, release the detainees who are in the prisons of the Palestinian Authority as well as stop the security coordination with Israel.
