GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Here's some advice for Hamas' military wing from several quarters: Stop showing off.

Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades has been holding repeated parades and talking about increasing its capabilities. Among politicians, observers and citizens, some believe the resistance is merely responding to Israel’s threats against the Gaza Strip. Others see the behavior as an attempt to inflate the resistance’s ability to face Israel’s military power.

Most seem to agree al-Qassam Brigades should knock it off before Israel uses the bragging as propaganda to paint itself as a victim.

On Jan. 31, al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida spoke in public — masked, as is his habit — to mourn the deaths of seven Hamas fighters who died Jan. 28 in a tunnel collapse. However, this time Abu Obeida arrived at the ceremony riding on the back of a tank. The tank’s body was made of parts from Israeli-made Merkava 4 tanks, which the Palestinian resistance had destroyed during the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip in 2014. The tank supposedly is only used for training purposes, but Hamas supporters and leaders presented it as one of al-Qassam Brigades’ new weapons.