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Hamas most wanted playing cards
Deck of playing cards featuring Hamas members From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Hamas most wanted cards are decks of playing cards featuring pictures of Hamas members wanted by Israel. The decks were produced by independent volunteers and were handed out to Israel Defense Forces soldiers during the early stages of the Gaza war.[1][2][3]
Unofficial IDF deck
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As part of the Gaza war, an unofficial[further explanation needed] card deck of 54 wanted people was distributed to Israeli soldiers. The idea for the deck was inspired by the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards created by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency for identifying the top wanted members of Saddam Hussein's government during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The history of making such cards dates back to the American Civil War.[1][4][5][3]
More than 10,000 decks of the cards were distributed to Israeli soldiers to help the soldiers identify top Hamas targets and to unsettle Hamas officials. The hierarchy of various Hamas officials has been mixed around in the deck in order to attempt to embarrass more higher-ranking officials.[5]
As of May 2025,[update] 35 people from the list had been killed.
List of cards
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Christian cowboy deck
Following the October 7 attacks, a group of Christian Zionist "cowboys" who had come to volunteer on farms in Israel,[45] and on settler farms in the occupied West Bank,[46] designed and printed another, unofficial deck of playing cards with photos of the most-wanted Hamas personalities, and distributed the cards to Israeli soldiers in southern Israel and Gaza. The cards were designed and printed by Be'eri Printers at Kibbutz Be'eri, one of the hardest hit kibbutzim during the October 7 attack.[45]
The deck was printed in Hebrew, English, and Arabic, and included two joker cards and 12 Hamas personalities, including Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar, Abu Obaida, Mohammed Deif, Issa, al-Arouri, Mashal, Hamad,[who?] Sa'ad, Muhammad Sinwar. The depictions in these cards, from the drawings of the subjects to how their names were written in Arabic, are intended to mock the Hamas leaders. For example, Yahya Sinwar is written as "Sinfar", a play on the Arabic word for mouse, الْفَأْر al-faʔr, and his picture depicts him as a mouse.[45]
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