-5

It's been widely alleged that Hamas hide among civilians of Gaza and do not wear military uniforms.

The first question to ask when evaluating the validity of such claims is whether Hamas military wing does in fact have an accepted military uniform. Wikipedia shows this picture:

enter image description here

and this one shows their back:

enter image description here

The 1st link has a quote about Hamas military on one occasion wearing "brown camouflage uniforms". But that's all I can see about their adopted "uniforms."

Are there better references? Does Hamas officially have military uniform standardization?

wrod
  • 9,321
  • 25
  • 64
  • 8
    You've made a leap of logic here that doesn't follow. Just as a police uniform doesn't preclude officers in plain clothes there is no reason to think that Hamas having an official uniform rules out them also hiding amongst civilians. Only the reverse - that if they have no standard uniform then by definition they don't distinguish themselves from civilians during combat. – Lio Elbammalf Dec 29 '23 at 12:14
  • @LioElbammalf are you sure I made that leap? – wrod Dec 29 '23 at 13:07
  • 6
    Yes. You've at least written a leap in logic, whether or not you believe what you wrote (and so actually made the leap yourself) is a different question. – Lio Elbammalf Dec 29 '23 at 13:25
  • Well, at least that didn't engender any "chic offensive" LOL. – the gods from engineering Dec 30 '23 at 01:27
  • @LioElbamalf better? – wrod Dec 30 '23 at 08:53
  • BTW, I have no idea why it was close for not being "a good-faith effort to learn more about governments." It is clearly about a government performing government function (standardizing military uniforms). – wrod Dec 30 '23 at 09:03
  • @wrod The implication is still that the uniforms would have some reflection on the statement of whether Hamas hides amongst civilians. I think you should remove that part entirely and simply ask whether Hamas has a standard military uniform. It's not my close vote but my guess would be that your question reads as trying to dismiss the statement without evidence to the contrary. If I wrote a question "Does NYPD have a uniform?" starting the question stating that I'm doubtful of whether they use plain clothes officers I hope you can see why this wouldn't follow logically or seem in good faith. – Lio Elbammalf Dec 31 '23 at 09:47
  • @LioElbammalf but the answer to question of whether NYPD has uniforms is clearly known. The same is not true about Hamas. Imagine someone countering the argument that Hamas hides among civilians by saying "I don't think they even have uniforms." Well, would they be right in that particular counter? This is what this question is trying to ascertain. By showing that they sort of do have uniforms (sort of!) it gives anyone, who reads this question and its accepted answer, a chance to strengthen their argument (that Hamas hides among civilians). Think of it as due diligence. – wrod Dec 31 '23 at 12:31
  • @sfxedit while the answer to this question may be useful in answering the question you propose, it's a fundamentally different question. – wrod Jan 02 '24 at 13:35
  • @wrod I understand. But as the close votes highlight, your current Q is controversial to some and so they have voted accordingly ("not in good faith"). Hence my suggestion. – sfxedit Jan 03 '24 at 03:30
  • @sfxedit I think the close vote started before the edit and then just got closed by momentum after the edit, but I am not sure . It's definitely not an "off topic" question because it asks about a government function. I have raised this point in this meta question if you want to chime in. – wrod Jan 03 '24 at 03:52

1 Answers1

6

Those are black t-shirts, not uniforms.

In their parades & other propaganda imagery, Hamas can typically be seen in camo or olive clothing and a green headband:

google image result showing typical images of hamas members, wearing a green headband

There's also imagery of individual members using those headbands during the 7/10 massacre of Jewish civilians:

a hamas terrorist riding on the back of a car, wearing a green headband

I wasn't able to find any official guidelines defining uniforms, but this seems to be closed to what one might consider official uniforms.

The fact that Hamas has something akin to uniforms doesn't prove that they wear them during all or most military operations though.

In fact, we know that they don't wear uniforms for all military operations. We know that they hide among civilians and civilian infrastructure, using them as human shields.

tim
  • 37,031
  • 15
  • 102
  • 133