In the wake of its ceasefire agreement with Israel, Hamas has again attempted to paint itself as a struggling resistance movement against an occupying force. After 11 days of fighting, which left more than 250 people dead, Hamas’s co-founder, Mahmoud Zahar, claimed a strategic and a symbolic victory. ‘The new element here is the degree of the resistance movement, in particular in Gaza, to attack the Israeli targets and very important points, including most of the overcrowded areas… the civilian society,’ he told Sky News. ‘So for how long will the Israelis accept that?’ By painting itself as a plucky victim, Hamas is trying to convince the Arab world – and Muslims in the West, like me – that we should be on its side. But the reality is that the terror group’s ever escalating appetite for conflict does nothing to serve the Palestinian cause. While Hamas’s leaders live in the luxury and safety of Qatar, millions of dollars, which should have been used to help Palestinians, has been syphoned off to build the Islamist group’s complex network of tunnels throughout Gaza.