Counter Extremism Project’s New Report on the "Friends" and "Enablers" Keeping Hamas Afloat
How Iran, Qatar, Turkey, and Other State Actors Sustain Hamas Through Diplomatic, Financial, and Military Support
On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a devastating attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people. In response, the U.S. and its allies sought to isolate the Palestinian militant group, designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). Yet, despite international efforts, Hamas continues to thrive, thanks to direct support from six national governments: Iran, Qatar, Turkey, North Korea, Russia, and China. A new report from the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) exposes how these states enable Hamas’s survival by providing financial, military, and diplomatic backing.
The Pillars & Tiers of Support
The CEP report categorizes state support into three key areas: diplomatic, financial, and military. It also explains that support for Hamas can be further classified into two tiers: ideological support and negotiable support.
The most explicit and vocal state supporters of Hamas—Iran, Qatar, and Turkey—share ideological or political alignment with the group. Iran, despite being a Shiite-ruled regime, finds common ground with Hamas in their extreme Islamist interpretation and their shared goal of eliminating Israel.
Meanwhile, Qatar and Turkey are influenced by their support for the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist organization from which Hamas emerged. These states advocate for Palestinian liberation, an ambition that may not explicitly call for Israel’s destruction but still undermines its legitimacy as a Jewish state. This ideological backing provides Hamas with crucial political legitimacy and continued financial assistance.
When asked what he found to be the most surprising or underreported finding from his research, Josh Lipowsky, a Senior Research Analyst at the Counter Extremism Project, told Jewish Onliner that while Iranian, Qatari, and Turkish support for Hamas is well known, "level of diplomatic support provided by Russia and China—both of which also maintain relationships with Israel—is not as widely known. After the atrocity of October 7, the continued support of Hamas by these countries is a revelation for the broader community."
Unlike Iran, Qatar, and Turkey, North Korea, Russia, and China provide Hamas support for strategic reasons rather than ideological alignment. These countries use Hamas as a tool to counterbalance U.S. influence in the Middle East. Their support is fluid and conditional, based on broader geopolitical calculations rather than deep-rooted ideological commitment.
“The level of diplomatic support [to Hamas] provided by Russia and China—both of which also maintain relationships with Israel—is not as widely known. After the atrocity of October 7, the continued support of Hamas by these countries is a revelation for the broader community."
—Josh Lipowsky
Russia and China maintain diplomatic and economic ties with Israel, making their backing of Hamas more opportunistic than foundational, CEP explains. North Korea’s involvement is largely transactional, supplying Hamas with weapons and military expertise in exchange for financial or diplomatic favors.
Qatar’s Role: Financial and Political Safe Haven
Qatar has long provided hundreds of millions of dollars to Hamas, often with Israel’s tacit approval as part of ceasefire agreements. Hamas’s leadership, including Ismail Haniyeh, resided in luxury accommodations in Doha until recent diplomatic pressure forced them to relocate to Turkey. While Qatar temporarily distanced itself from Hamas after the October 7 attack, it resumed mediation efforts between Hamas and Israel in early 2025.
Lipowsky highlighted that while Qatar’s position of open communication with all sides may have benefited its mediation efforts for a ceasefire in Gaza, "it has also allowed Hamas a free hand to fundraise and recruit."
Lipowsky further emphasized that isolating Hamas from its international supporters is crucial, stating that while Hamas "relies largely on ideology to maintain its support among Palestinians, it needs external financial and material support to carry out its terrorist operations." By pressuring Hamas’s host countries, the group would be in a weaker position and "unable to focus its efforts on launching terror attacks from within Gaza or the West Bank."
Iran: Hamas’s Primary Benefactor
Iran is Hamas’s most crucial ally, supplying weapons, intelligence, and millions in funding. Documents uncovered by Israel reveal that between 2014 and 2020, Iran funneled almost $250 million to Hamas. The regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) allegedly provided intelligence and greenlit the October 7 attack. Even after the massacre, Iranian officials openly celebrated Hamas’s actions and increased financial support to the group.
Unlike Qatar and Turkey, Iran is unlikely to be swayed by diplomatic pressure or sanctions. "Iran’s support is based on a shared anti-Israel ideology," Lipowsky stated. "The Iranian leadership has shown that it is dedicated more to that ideology than it is to its own people."
"Iran remains the head of the beast and the leader of the anti-Israel jihadist front," Lipowsky concluded.
Turkey: A Government That Hosts Hamas Leadership
Turkey, under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has become Hamas’s diplomatic sanctuary. The Turkish government has hosted high-level meetings with Hamas leaders and granted citizenship to some of its top operatives. Even after October 7, Erdoğan refused to condemn the attack, instead calling Hamas a “liberation group” and offering medical care to Hamas fighters in Turkish hospitals.
Despite this, Lipowsky suggested that Turkey, unlike Iran, remains susceptible to Western diplomatic pressure. "Turkey’s position in NATO could be a pressure point to decrease the country's support for Hamas," he said.
Russia and China: Strategic, Not Ideological, Supporters
Unlike Iran, Qatar, and Turkey, Russia and China do not share an ideological alignment with Hamas. Their support is geopolitical—designed to undermine U.S. influence in the Middle East. Russia has never designated Hamas as a terrorist organization and has hosted Hamas delegations in Moscow multiple times since October 7. Meanwhile, Chinese arms have surfaced in Gaza, and Beijing has blocked UN resolutions condemning Hamas’s actions.
North Korea: Supplying Weapons and Tactical Expertise
Reports indicate North Korea has supplied Hamas with weapons and military training, including advanced tunnel-warfare techniques. In the October 7 attack, Hamas fighters allegedly used North Korean F-7 rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). South Korean intelligence has confirmed that Hamas has used North Korean arms in battle.
The Consequences of International Backing
The continued diplomatic legitimacy granted to Hamas by Iran, Qatar, and other state actors complicates efforts to isolate the group. Their financial and military assistance remains a key factor in sustaining Hamas’s governance and operations.
As Lipowsky pointed out, narrowing Hamas’s support network to only Iran makes the group "more susceptible to disruption, especially as the U.S. just reimposed its 'maximum pressure' sanctions campaign on Iran." While Hamas may rely on Iran in the short term, broader diplomatic and economic pressure could ultimately weaken the group’s ability to launch further attacks.
I started doing some research over the weekend using the Hansard records of what our MPs think about Qatar, and how they describe the UK relationship with the country.
The UK government (under both Conservative and Labour administrations) has spent decades cultivating Qatar as a "strategic partner," especially after the financial crisis when Qatari money started propping up everything from Barclays to Harrods. That financial dependency, combined with Qatari investments in critical UK infrastructure (like gas and property), creates a situation where serious scrutiny of Qatar’s darker influences becomes politically inconvenient (its media manipulation, influence operations, and soft power strategies).
The UK officially treats terrorism financing as a critical national security issue, yet Qatar has a long and documented history of enabling the flow of funds to groups like Hamas and the Taliban. If the UK was serious about cracking down, Qatar would be under much closer scrutiny, but it's not, because geopolitics (and investment flows) get in the way.
MPs love to talk about human rights when it’s politically safe (Russia, Iran), but with Qatar they perform these rhetorical gymnastics, praising "progress" while ignoring how that "progress" is often cosmetic and designed for Western consumption (like the token labour reforms the did ahead of the World Cup). Qatar has deeply embedded itself into British political, cultural, and educational life. From funding chairs at prestigious universities to sponsoring events at the Foreign Office, Qatar has bought itself a protective layer of goodwill. This compromises the objectivity of any parliamentary scrutiny.
This really needs comprehensive research, on the scale of what the Henry Jackson Society did on regards to BBC bias. There are better writers than me out there, I hope someone else has the energy and time to make this happen.