JOHN SPENCER: There’s 600 miles of tunnels in Gaza, as one example. But Hamas actually makes written and public statements saying these are not for the civilians, and civilians are not allowed.

Some insurgencies need their civilians to get killed in large numbers, solely for the propaganda value. https://t.co/mm5wrypV7Z

— J Michael Waller (@JMichaelWaller) September 5, 2026

Urban warfare scholar John Spencer says Hamas has created a uniquely barbaric form of warfare that much of the world fails to understand. Hamas doesn’t merely accept the deaths of its own civilians as collateral damage. He says civilian deaths are an integral part of its political strategy. “The Hamas leadership… have many public statements… saying they need the blood of their women, children, and elderly to achieve their goals.” “They said they not only want it, they need it to achieve this goal of theirs in the afterlife.” “It’s a really sick political strategy.” “Even the Japanese, the Nazis, while they accepted civilian casualties, that wasn’t their strategy.” “To get their own population killed in order to achieve this political goal in the afterlife.” “There’s 600 miles of tunnels in Gaza, as one example.” “There’s 2.2 million people there. All of them could fit in their tunnels with ease and escape what’s going on the surface.” “But Hamas actually makes written and public statements saying these are not for the civilians, and civilians are not allowed.” “That’s where you get Hamas occupying hospitals, schools, mosques, all of it, because they know that those are protected sites.” “That’s a war crime in and of itself, but it’s this reverse engineering of the rules of war.”

@SpencerGuard