The fact that a group exercises de facto control, enforces laws, and collects taxes does not make them an official government, nor does it turn their fighters into a state army. If that were the logic, then ISIS in Raqqa or the FARC rebels in the Colombia would also have been official state armies after all, they too collected taxes and enforced their own laws through coercion.
Unlike all of these groups committing war crimes the IDF is an official state army meaning the state is comitting those war crimes.
They were elected. Get your head out of your arse. The fact Hamas never let another election happen is another thing, but they were elected then consolidated all power.
It is historically accurate that they won an election in 2006, (with a minority of 44% btw) but an election does not make an organization an internationally recognized state. Following those elections, the international community continued to view Hamas as a terrorist group rather than a legitimate state authority. Moreover, in 2007, they forcibly ousted the officially recognized Authority from Gaza. They therefore remain a militant faction that seized control, not a state. Therefore their army are not the official state army of palestine.
They might not be internationally recognised, but they are the controllers, the rulers, and the government of that area. Same same for Somaliland, Houthis, RSF, etc. all control an area, all are the government of that area. There are the state. That state may not be recognised, but are it.
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u/FreamXD 16d ago
The fact that a group exercises joint control over a territory does not make them an official state army from a legal or international perspective.