Hamas is the largest and most influential Palestinian militant movement that, along with the more moderate Fatah party, serves as one of the two primary Palestinian political factions.
Founded in 1987 during the first Intifada, Hamas is a Sunni Islamist group and a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization violently opposed to the state of Israel. Hamas, an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawana al-Islamiya (Islamic Resistance Movement), has exercised de facto rule over the Gaza Strip since wresting the territory from its rival Fatah, which governs the West Bank, in 2007.
The two parties have made overtures of reconciliation in the wake of the Arab Spring revolutions, but progress on this score has proved elusive. Despite its militant reputation, Hamas' local support, in many ways, can be traced to its extensive network of on-the-ground social programming, including food banks, schools, and medical clinics.Hamas is viewed by most Western analysts as an obstacle to the Arab-Israeli peace process and the goal of a two-state solution.
As a result, Western nations, including the United States, have tried to embolden the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority while isolating Hamas, which has historically kept strong ties to Iran. However, direct Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been frozen since 2010, and the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hamas (NYT) in Gaza in late 2012 threatens to erode the prospects for renewed talks anytime soon.
Hamas was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian spiritual leader who became an activist in the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood after dedicating his early life to Islamic scholarship in Cairo. Beginning in the late 1960s, Yassin preached and performed charitable work in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both of which were seized by Israeli forces following the 1967 Six-Day War. In 1973, he established al-Mujamma' al-Islami (the Islamic Center) to coordinate the Brotherhood's political activities in Gaza.
Yassin established Hamas as the Brotherhood's local political arm in December 1987, following the outbreak of the first Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli control of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Hamas published its official charter in 1988, moving decidedly away from the Brotherhood's ethos of nonviolence.
The first Hamas suicide bombing took place in April 1993, five months before Yasir Arafat, then-leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and Yitzhak Rabin, then-prime minister of Israel, sealed the Oslo Accords--a historic peace pact that, among other things, established limited self-government for parts of the West Bank and Gaza under the Palestinian authority. Hamas subsequently condemned the Oslo Accords, and has since launched a campaign of terrorism in efforts to undercut peace negotiations.
The U.S. State Department officially designated Hamas a Foreign Terrorist Organization in October 1997.The overall leader of Hamas since 2004 is Khaled Meshaal, a former teacher who is based out of Doha, Qatar. In January 2012, Meshaal abandoned his longtime base of operations in Damascus, Syria, amid the country's ongoing civil war. According to the non-partisan
Congressional Research Service, Meshaal's leadership and influence are being challenged in 2012, partly due to the perception of some of Hamas' prominent leaders in Gaza that he favors political over military resistance.
Hamas' so-called "prime minister" is Gaza-based Ismail Haniyeh, a former leader of the group's student movement and close associate of its spiritual founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated along with much of the Hamas leadership in 2004.
Analysts say Haniyeh is seen as a pragmatist within Hamas, and more open to talks with Israel.Hamas' primary base of popular support is in the Gaza Strip, where it has maintained de facto control since its 2006, when it surprised many observers by winning the majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament. Hamas ousted the remnants of Fatah from Gaza by force in early 2007, and the new Hamas-led government was summarily dismissed by PA president and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas.
The result of the bloodshed was a de facto geographic division of Palestinian-held territory, with Hamas holding sway in Gaza and Fatah maintaining the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank town of Ramallah.The upheavals of the "Arab Spring" in early 2011 led many Palestinians to push for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, and the two sides signed an accord in May 2011.
"We need to achieve the common goal: a Palestinian state with full sovereignty on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as the capital, no settlers, and we will not give up the right of return," Meshal said at the signing in Cairo. Yet Hamas and Fatah were at odds again several months later when Abbas decided to seek recognition for a Palestinian state in the United Nations, a move Hamas vehemently opposed.
Early on, some observers hoped that political legitimacy--and the accountability that comes with it--could wean Hamas away from violence. But to date, the group has refused to eschew violence and remains adamant about reversing the decision by the more secular Fatah to recognize Israel's right to exist. Following Hamas's capture of Gaza, Egypt and Israel largely closed their borders with the territory. Israel, which maintains a blockade of the Gaza strip, alleges that Iranian and other weapons are smuggled into the enclave through a series of tunnels from Egypt.
Since coming to power in Gaza, rockets fired from the territory have consistently landed on Israeli border cities, sometimes producing casualties. Israel has retaliated militarily on targets in Gaza, most notably in 2009 with a full-blown ground invasion and a sustained campaign of airstrikes. In late 2012, analysts speculate whether a similar fate awaits Gaza after rockets rained down on many Israeli urban centers, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Founded in 1987 during the first Intifada, Hamas is a Sunni Islamist group and a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization violently opposed to the state of Israel. Hamas, an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawana al-Islamiya (Islamic Resistance Movement), has exercised de facto rule over the Gaza Strip since wresting the territory from its rival Fatah, which governs the West Bank, in 2007.
The two parties have made overtures of reconciliation in the wake of the Arab Spring revolutions, but progress on this score has proved elusive. Despite its militant reputation, Hamas' local support, in many ways, can be traced to its extensive network of on-the-ground social programming, including food banks, schools, and medical clinics.Hamas is viewed by most Western analysts as an obstacle to the Arab-Israeli peace process and the goal of a two-state solution.
As a result, Western nations, including the United States, have tried to embolden the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority while isolating Hamas, which has historically kept strong ties to Iran. However, direct Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been frozen since 2010, and the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hamas (NYT) in Gaza in late 2012 threatens to erode the prospects for renewed talks anytime soon.
Hamas was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian spiritual leader who became an activist in the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood after dedicating his early life to Islamic scholarship in Cairo. Beginning in the late 1960s, Yassin preached and performed charitable work in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both of which were seized by Israeli forces following the 1967 Six-Day War. In 1973, he established al-Mujamma' al-Islami (the Islamic Center) to coordinate the Brotherhood's political activities in Gaza.
Yassin established Hamas as the Brotherhood's local political arm in December 1987, following the outbreak of the first Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli control of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Hamas published its official charter in 1988, moving decidedly away from the Brotherhood's ethos of nonviolence.
The first Hamas suicide bombing took place in April 1993, five months before Yasir Arafat, then-leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and Yitzhak Rabin, then-prime minister of Israel, sealed the Oslo Accords--a historic peace pact that, among other things, established limited self-government for parts of the West Bank and Gaza under the Palestinian authority. Hamas subsequently condemned the Oslo Accords, and has since launched a campaign of terrorism in efforts to undercut peace negotiations.
The U.S. State Department officially designated Hamas a Foreign Terrorist Organization in October 1997.The overall leader of Hamas since 2004 is Khaled Meshaal, a former teacher who is based out of Doha, Qatar. In January 2012, Meshaal abandoned his longtime base of operations in Damascus, Syria, amid the country's ongoing civil war. According to the non-partisan
Congressional Research Service, Meshaal's leadership and influence are being challenged in 2012, partly due to the perception of some of Hamas' prominent leaders in Gaza that he favors political over military resistance.
Hamas' so-called "prime minister" is Gaza-based Ismail Haniyeh, a former leader of the group's student movement and close associate of its spiritual founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated along with much of the Hamas leadership in 2004.
Analysts say Haniyeh is seen as a pragmatist within Hamas, and more open to talks with Israel.Hamas' primary base of popular support is in the Gaza Strip, where it has maintained de facto control since its 2006, when it surprised many observers by winning the majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament. Hamas ousted the remnants of Fatah from Gaza by force in early 2007, and the new Hamas-led government was summarily dismissed by PA president and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas.
The result of the bloodshed was a de facto geographic division of Palestinian-held territory, with Hamas holding sway in Gaza and Fatah maintaining the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank town of Ramallah.The upheavals of the "Arab Spring" in early 2011 led many Palestinians to push for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, and the two sides signed an accord in May 2011.
"We need to achieve the common goal: a Palestinian state with full sovereignty on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as the capital, no settlers, and we will not give up the right of return," Meshal said at the signing in Cairo. Yet Hamas and Fatah were at odds again several months later when Abbas decided to seek recognition for a Palestinian state in the United Nations, a move Hamas vehemently opposed.
Early on, some observers hoped that political legitimacy--and the accountability that comes with it--could wean Hamas away from violence. But to date, the group has refused to eschew violence and remains adamant about reversing the decision by the more secular Fatah to recognize Israel's right to exist. Following Hamas's capture of Gaza, Egypt and Israel largely closed their borders with the territory. Israel, which maintains a blockade of the Gaza strip, alleges that Iranian and other weapons are smuggled into the enclave through a series of tunnels from Egypt.
Since coming to power in Gaza, rockets fired from the territory have consistently landed on Israeli border cities, sometimes producing casualties. Israel has retaliated militarily on targets in Gaza, most notably in 2009 with a full-blown ground invasion and a sustained campaign of airstrikes. In late 2012, analysts speculate whether a similar fate awaits Gaza after rockets rained down on many Israeli urban centers, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
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