[DiogenesKynikos]

> Gaza began the war with a more powerful army than many European countries

This is such an insane statement that you instantly disqualify everything else you say.

[richardfeynman]

It's hard to believe the earth is round, but it is.

As I mentioned above, Hamas's army was comparable to countries like Denmark (20k active soldiers), Finland, the Czech republic (27k active) and maybe even the Netherlands (40k active). Estimates of the size of Hamas's army pre October 7 range from 20k to 40k active combatants, with US intelligence estimates converging on 30k. This is looking just at fighters and excludes Hamas's political wing. They also had tens of thousands of rockets.

[ceejayoz]

I would gently suggest that the relative quality of the soldiers and their equipment is not something you can dismiss here.

A handful of Delta Force in Mogadishu shot hundreds (at least) of armed assailants, for example.

Hamas certainly doesn’t have the Leopard 2 tanks and F-35s Denmark has. Which is pretty important for the “more powerful” assessment.