The Palestinian organization Hamas launched a surprise attack from Gaza on Israel on Saturday, in one of the worst escalations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in recent years. But what is Hamas? The Reuters news agency briefly presents the most important data about this Palestinian group.
Member of the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of HamasPhoto: Adel Hana / AP / Profimedia
What is Hamas?
- Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, was founded in 1987, during the first Intifada, or Palestinian uprising. It is supported by Shiite Iran and shares the Islamist ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt in the 1920s.
- Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007 after a brief civil war with forces loyal to the Fatah movement, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank and also heads the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip followed its victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 – the last time they were held. Hamas accused Abbas of conspiring against it. Abbas described what happened as a coup.
Since then, there have been numerous rounds of conflict with Israel, often involving Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel and Israeli airstrikes and bombings of Gaza.
- Hamas refuses to recognize the state of Israel and violently opposed the Oslo peace accords negotiated by Israel and the PLO in the mid-1990s.
- Hamas has an armed wing called the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, which has sent armed militants and suicide bombers to Israel. Hamas characterizes its armed activities as resistance against the Israeli occupation.
Its 1988 founding charter called for the destruction of Israel, although Hamas leaders have sometimes offered a long-term truce (or Hudna in Arabic) with Israel in exchange for a viable Palestinian state in all the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 war. Israel considers this thing as a ruse.
- Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, the European Union, Canada, Egypt and Japan.
- Hamas is part of a regional alliance that includes Iran, Syria and Lebanon’s Shiite Islamist group Hezbollah, which generally opposes US Middle East policy and Israel.
- Although its power base is in Gaza, Hamas also has supporters throughout the Palestinian territories and has leaders spread across the Middle East in countries such as Qatar.
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