Since October 7, 2023—when Hamas led a massacre of 1,200 Israelis and other nationalities—the United States and its Western allies have ramped up long-standing efforts to politically and diplomatically isolate the Palestinian Sunni Islamist group Hamas, an nternationally designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) that violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2006. The United States has repeatedly stated that Hamas must not play any role in governing any Palestinian-controlled territory. Israel, meanwhile, has sought to eliminate Hamas entirely as a military threat in the Gaza Strip.

However, efforts to degrade Hamas politically and militarily are seriously undermined by ongoing support the group receives from at least six national governments: Iran, Qatar, Turkey, North Korea, Russia, and China. This support can be organized into three — at times overlapping — categories:

(1) diplomatic:conferring political cover and legitimacy, especially on the world stage and in international forums;
(2) financial: providing the resources for Hamas to continue governing Gaza, withstand U.S. and Western sanctions, and maintain its military capacity;
(3) military: physically transferring weapons and/or weapons technology to Hamas as it continues to attack Israeli territory and engage in
guerilla warfare with Israeli forces operating inside Gaza.