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Right now, almost all attention in the Gaza conflict

is focused on big decisions to be taken in Jerusalem or Tehran.

But it all began six months ago when Hamas launched its attack on Israel.

And sometimes the organisation seems like Macavity the Cat.

Hamas spokespeople don't speak.

Its losses aren't given in the Gaza casualty figures.

And few in Gaza ever seem to have seen its fighters.

What happens when we bring it back into the spotlight? And what do we know about

the state of Hamas half a year into this bloody war? Step inside the briefing room and together

we'll find out. First, what have we learned more recently about Hamas's planning and intentions for the October 7th attack and its calculations about what would happen afterwards?

Jennifer Jeffries is a teaching professor at Georgetown University's Security Studies Programme, an author of Hamas, Terrorism, Governance and its future in Middle East politics.

Jennifer Jeffries, what have we learned in the last six months about the October 7th attack?

So I would say there's three main things. First, Hamas was more military capable than I think we

previously believed. They conducted a full-scale military operation on

October 7. They planned it, they practiced it, and they executed it with devastating results.

Second, then I would say, Hamas is more open to pragmatic collaboration than I had previously

understood. We now know that for years, they'd been running military like training

exercises with numerous other armed groups in Gaza. And these groups were spread across the

ideological spectrum. Looking at how Hamas had accepted money from Iran in the past, but then was

prepared to give up that source of funding when they faced ideological differences or how they'd

repeatedly dabbled in the idea of unity governments with Fatal only to pull out at the last

...