More than 300 rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israeli territory from the afternoon to the late evening hours of Nov. 12. The concentrated and massive shooting spree testified to the enhanced operational abilities of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as their large stockpile of rockets that had been ready to fire.

During the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, Hamas and the smaller organizations it worked with were careful to fire a limited number of rockets a day — about 50 to 150 on average — to extend the fight for as long as possible. The fighting went on for 50 days.

Yet despite the blockade and economic distress of the Gaza residents and of the Hamas organization itself, the capabilities of Hamas’ military wing have greatly improved since 2014. Hamas continues to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into extending the range of its rockets, improving their precision and upping their manufacturing pace. There is also its ambitious tunnel project and special operations training for its Nukhba combat units. It is no wonder that after such tremendous military investment the movement needed Qatari money to pay the salaries of its workers, lest its government dissolve.

In recent years, Israel’s defense system has kept a close eye on Hamas' arms stockpiling. In addition to gathering 20,000 rockets and mortar shells, Hamas has developed advanced combat weapons such as multicopper drones and small unmanned aerial vehicles and attempted to develop “tie-breaking” weapons. In spite of this progress, Israel was willing to reach an arrangement with Hamas that would ease the Gaza blockade and enable the transfer of money to the Strip that could not necessarily be controlled. Even if Israel could oversee the use of money from donor countries, the blockade easement would certainly enable Hamas to continue to allot the lion’s share of its resources to develop its military might while Qatar underwrites Hamas’ bureaucratic and civil apparatuses.