What is the Hamas movement?
Hamas is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement (Ḥarakah al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah). It is a Palestinian nationalist political organization of fundamentalist Sunni Islam.
Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip. Photo: Al-Arabiya
Hamas was founded on three pillars: religion, charity and the fight against Israel. It was founded in 1987 by Sheik Ahmed Yassin, an activist in the Muslim Brotherhood, during the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli military control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Since then, Hamas has been responsible for numerous suicide attacks on Israeli civilians as well as kidnappings and killings of Israeli soldiers. The United States is among the countries that consider Hamas a terrorist group.
Unlike the Palestine Liberation Organization (Fatah or formerly known as the PLO with its late, famous chairman Yasser Arafat), Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist as a state and has called for the expulsion of all Jews from the region. The organization advocates an uncompromising view of establishing a Palestinian state based on fundamentalist Islam stretching from the eastern Mediterranean to the Jordan River.
For years, the organization has had a contentious relationship with its Palestinian political rival Fatah, led by Mahmoud Abbas. A year after Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections, defeating Fatah. In 2007, after sectarian fighting in Gaza, Hamas overthrew the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority and took control of the Gaza Strip, home to more than 2 million people.
What is Hamas' role in the Palestinian territories?
In its early years, Hamas was widely seen by Palestinians as the group most willing to oppose Israel, and was seen by some as less corrupt and better organized than the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas fighters celebrate after destroying an Israeli tank in an attack on October 7. Photo: The Guardian
But discontent has grown as Palestinian life has worsened amid conflict and years of blockade by Israel and Egypt, and some feel the group's attacks have also taken a toll on Palestinians.
Hamas has used a network of tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border to smuggle weapons and supplies that the group has used to build thousands of rockets and a small number of drones fired at Israel over the years.
After Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, the group waged four wars against Israel. For its part, Tel-Aviv declared Hamas a hostile entity, imposing a series of sanctions including power cuts, import restrictions and border closures on the Gaza Strip.
However, Hamas' attacks on Israel continued, leading to fierce Israeli counterattacks on the Gaza Strip, causing great damage to both people and property on both sides.
Who are Hamas' allies and supporters?
In the Gaza Strip, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the region's second-largest militant group, regularly unite against Israel.
Islamic Jihad has often operated independently of Hamas and has focused primarily on military confrontation. In some cases, Hamas has pressured Islamic Jihad to stop attacks or retaliation against Israel or to stand on the sidelines when the group clashes with Israel.
A rocket fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory. Photo: WSJ
Hamas is allied with Middle Eastern countries such as Syria and organizations such as Hezbollah in Lebanon that oppose US and Israeli policies. One of its strongest supporters is Iran.
Both the US and Israel allege that for decades Iran has provided weapons, technology and training to Hamas to build its own advanced missile arsenal that can reach deep into Israeli territory.
Immediately after Hamas' attack on Israeli territory last Saturday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani made statements expressing support for Hamas.
“This activity... is a spontaneous movement of resistance groups and oppressed people in Palestine...”, Iranian state media quoted Mr. Nasser Kanaani as saying.
Meanwhile, Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad said the militant group had received support from its ally Iran and many other forces.
Quang Anh
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