As Israel's campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip enters its third week, the situation of the Islamist organization is coming under increasing scrutiny, dpa reported.
Externally, and outwardly, Hamas becomes more popular with each Israeli strike, with huge rallies in support of it taking place throughout the world.
The Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is the Palestinian offshoot, has also enlisted residents of Arab countries to telephone Gazans to boost their morale.
The reality, say Gazans closer to the fighting, is far more complex, and reflects the dilemmas the movement finds itself in, divided between the political leaders in the Gaza Strip on the one hand, and the military wing and the Hamas leaders in exile on the other.
Once the Israeli offensive got underway on December 27, Hamas' political leaders in the Gaza Strip swiftly went into hiding, afraid of being targeted by the Israelis.
Since then, and apart from a pre-recorded televised statement by Ismail Haniya, they have largely been incommunicado, and it has been left to the Hamas leaders in exile to issue statements on behalf of the movement.
This, however has caused bitterness among some, who complain that leaders in exile are increasingly out of touch with the people they are claiming to represent.
Defiant statements from exiled Hamas politburo chief Khaled Maashal have only angered those Gaza Strip residents, perhaps the majority, who are not supporters of the movement and, in fact blame it along with the Israelis for the enclave's present plight.
"Who nominated him to represent the Palestinian people? He represents only Hamas," one resident, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, asked bitterly.
Ahmed Abdel Rahman, the West Bank spokesman for Hamas' bitter rival, the Fatah movement, was, perhaps predictably, more scathing.
He said that Maashal's comments that the Israeli operation had failed did not reflect a reality which sees Israeli troops and tanks on the outskirts of Gaza City, for the loss of only 9 soldiers and three civilians, compared to the hundreds of Hamas fighters and hundreds of Palestinian civilians who have been killed in the Israel assault.
"Khaled Mashaal was talking as if the Hamas tanks were surrounding Tel Aviv," the Jerusalem Post daily quoted him as saying. "It's obvious that Maashal has never been to the Gaza Strip and doesn't know what he's talking about."
Maashal's words, however, may not have been directed at Fatah, or even at the outside world, but intended to buck up the Hamas fighters confronting the Israelis in the salient, and at those civilians who support the group.
But those Gazans who are not Hamas members and are not Hamas supporters are increasingly bewildered by Hamas' decision not to go for a ceasefire now when, they think, a ceasefire is the inevitable result of the current Israeli offensive.
According to Israeli military intelligence estimates, Hamas has been hurt by the Israeli operation, although it is far from ready to raise a white flag and can, in fact, still inflict damage on the Jewish state.
The question is whether it will do so.
While the Gaza political leadership in hiding is thought to be anxious for some sort of deal to end the fighting, they are cut off and isolated and the other two elements of Hamas, the military wing and the exiled leadership in Damascus, are eager to carry on battling the Israelis.
Quoting an unnamed Egyptian government official, the Jerusalem Post reported Monday that Iran, Israel's arch-enemy, is pressuring Hamas and other militant factions not to give in.
"The Iranians threatened to stop weapons supplies and funding to the Palestinian factions if they agreed to a ceasefire with Israel," the official was quoted as saying.
"The Iranians want to fight Israel and the US indirectly. They are doing this through Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon," he said.