In an interview with The New York Times, Ayman Shanaa, the Hamas chief for the area of Lebanon where Ein al-Hilweh is located, explained that Hamas is still determined to wage attacks on Israel despite the military difference between it and the Jewish state.
“It’s true that our weapons cannot match our enemy’s,” Shanaa said. “But our people are resilient, and they support the resistance. And are joining us.”
While Hezbollah remains the dominant militant force in Lebanon, Hamas maintains significant influence within Palestinian communities such as Ein al-Hilweh. Although the enlistment of new members in Lebanon does not directly impact the conflict in Gaza, these recruits are playing a role in local governance and have participated in launching rockets into Israel from Lebanon’s southern border.
The New York Times further revealed that secular groups that previously led Palestinians have received less favor, and militant groups like Hamas have grown in popularity. It also showed how Hamas has been marketing towards young boys, displaying a poster in the streets near Ein al-Hilweh that serves as a recruitment advertisement for the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. The poster prominently displays images of smiling young men and boys. The poster also promotes a training workshop for the “Al Aqsa generation,” a reference to Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israeli civilians, known as “Al Aqsa Flood.”
Furthermore, New York Times journalists who entered the community in Lebanon attended a funeral procession of Hamas official Samer al-Hajj who was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Al-Hajj was a senior militant who played a role in attacks being launched from Lebanon to Israel. The journalists reported that crowds at the funeral chanted phrases such as "Our blood and our souls we will sacrifice to you, martyr!” When men fired rounds into the air from their guns, one woman yelled, “No shooting! Save it for the Israelis!”
