Looking through the thread, although you asked the question earlier in the thread, you never raised the question with me (http://www.debatepolitics.com/middle...post1057601268 (Palestinian Terrorist Groups and Collective Punishment of Palestinians).

In my opinion, Hamas is likely engaging in collective punishment of ordinary Palestinians along the lines numerous past authoritarian, totalitarian, or outright corrupt regimes have taken in diverting international humanitarian assistance from their civilian populations.

When select supplies such as fuel, food, or medicines are tight, such regimes have sometimes engaged in what amounts to "zero sum competition" with their own populations for those resources. They have taken such supplies for use to secure their own base of support (military, paramilitary, civilians who support them, etc.). They have also diverted such assistance that would be sufficient to meet humanitarian needs in a cynical ploy to blame international sanctions, etc., for creating a humanitarian catastrophe that would not otherwise be occurring if all of the assistance were allowed to flow to the target recipients. Their aim was to defeat such sanctions, which merely sought to deprive such regimes of assistance. Unfortunately, given that such regimes, be they the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe, the Kim Jong-il regime in North Korea, the former Baathist regime in Iraq, or the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, among others, control the levers of power, they have a capacity to disrupt and divert humanitarian assistance so as to make the utility of sanctions quite low and to evade the full consequences of such sanctions if their regimes were to be fully cut off from such supplies.

Hamas probably has at least two objectives. First, it aims to divert world attention from its terrorist activities that led Israel to impose some restrictions on the Gaza Strip toward blaming Israel for the consequences of Hamas' terrorist acts. Hamas is willing to engineer an artificial famine or human catastrophe so as to be able to accuse Israel of engaging in collective punishment or worse in order to achieve its propaganda objectives. Second, it is also stealing food, medicine, and fuel for its own militants and supporters, so as to provide for the needs of those on whom it depends to retain power, and also to take ill-deserved credit for providing humanitarian assistance that is furnished by the international community.