Hamas is the largest of the Palestinian Islamist groups. Its name is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, which emerged in 1988 after the start of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. According to its charter, it intends to destroy Israel.

Hamas created the Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades to achieve its military goals

Hamas originally had a dual goal: to wage an armed struggle against Israel (through its military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades) – the second – to provide social assistance programs, the BBC writes

Since 2005, when Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza, Hamas has also been involved in politics. It won parliamentary elections in 2006 before consolidating its power in Gaza the following year, ousting the rival Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas.

Since then, militants in Gaza have fought four major conflicts with Israel, which along with Egypt has maintained a blockade of the Gaza Strip to isolate Hamas and pressure it to end attacks.

Hamas or (in some cases) its military wing is designated as a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom, as well as other countries

Suicide bombings

Hamas has become much more prominent since opposing the Oslo peace accords signed in the early 1990s between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the body that represents the majority of Palestinians.

Despite numerous Israeli operations against it and repression by the Palestinian Authority (the main governing body of the Palestinians), Hamas has chosen to demonstrate its opposition through suicide attacks, carrying out several such attacks that have resulted in deaths.

The explosions halted the peace process and brought to power in 1996 Benjamin Netanyahu, an ardent opponent of the Oslo accords.

In the post-Oslo world, especially after the failure of US President Bill Clinton’s Camp David summit in 2000 and the second intifada that followed shortly thereafter, Hamas gained power and influence as Israel took action against the Palestinian Authority, which it accused of stands behind her. suicide bombings.

Hamas organized clinics and schools that served Palestinians who felt frustrated by the corrupt and ineffective Palestinian Authority, dominated by the Fatah faction.

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, was killed in an Israeli missile attack in 2004.

Many Palestinians applauded the wave of suicide bombings carried out by Hamas in the early years of the second intifada. They perceived the operations as “martyrdom” and revenge for their own losses.

In March and April 2004, the spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and his successor, Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi, were killed in Israeli rocket attacks on Gaza.

The death of Fatah leader Yasser Arafat in November led to the creation of a new Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas, who saw Hamas’ rocket launches as counterproductive.

Statute of 1988

The Hamas charter defines historic Palestine, including modern-day Israel, as Islamic land and rules out any peace with a Jewish state.

The document also repeatedly attacks Jews as a people, accusing them of anti-Semitism.

In 2017, Hamas prepared a new political document in which it softened its tone. The State of Israel was still not recognized, but officially accepted the creation of a temporary Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem – the so-called “pre-1967 lines”.

The document also emphasizes that Hamas is not fighting Jews, but “occupying Zionist aggressors.” Israel said the group was “trying to deceive the world”.

penalties

As a result, Israel and its Western allies imposed harsh economic and diplomatic sanctions against the new government led by Hamas.

After Hamas ousted forces loyal to Fatah in 2007, Israel tightened its blockade of the area, and Palestinian rockets and Israeli airstrikes continued. Egypt also closed the border crossing with Gaza and has since reopened it only intermittently.

Israel holds Hamas responsible for all attacks on the strip’s perimeter, and the two sides are in a constant state of conflict, ranging from deadly border incidents to open fighting.

The dilemma of rebuilding Gaza without rearming Hamas

In one of the bloodiest clashes of 2014, at least 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians, were killed in 50 days of fighting. On the Israeli side, 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed.

Another 11-day conflict took place in May 2021, killing at least 256 people in Gaza and 13 in Israel, before ending with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.

Repeated attempts at reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah have failed, and the first Palestinian elections in 15 years in which Hamas was to participate were canceled by President Abbas in April 2021.