On October 7, Hamas, a Palestinian armed group, launched a surprise attack into Israel, causing one of the most serious escalations in the Israel-Palestinian conflict in years. Hamas fighters crossed the border from the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,400 people and creating panic across Israel. The latest conflict has highlighted Israel’s 16-year blockade of the Gaza Strip and its policy of expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. So what is Hamas, the group at the centre of it all? Here is what to know:
What is Hamas?
Hamas was established in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian refugee living in Gaza, during the first intifada, or uprising, which was characterized by widespread protests against Israel’s occupation. Hamas is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, and a recognition of the group’s roots and early ties to one of the Sunni world’s most prominent groups, the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in the 1920s. The group politically controls the Gaza Strip, a territory of about 365sq km (141sq miles) that is home to more than two million people but is blockaded by Israel.
Hamas has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007 after a brief war against Fatah forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
What are the Palestinian group’s principles?
Unlike the PLO, Hamas does not recognize Israel’s statehood but accepts a Palestinian state on 1967 borders.
“We shall not waive an inch of the Palestinian home soil no matter what the recent pressures are and no matter how long the occupation,” Khaled Meshaal, the leader-in-exile of the Palestinian group said in 2017.
Hamas violently opposes the Oslo peace accords negotiated by Israel and the PLO in the mid-1990s.
It is formally committed to establishing a Palestinian state within its own borders. It has pursued this aim through attacks on Israeli soldiers, settlers and civilians both in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Israel.
The group as whole or in some instances its military wing is designated as a “terrorist” organization by Israel, the United States, European Union, Canada, Egypt and Japan.
Who are its allies and supporters?
Hamas is part of a regional alliance that also includes Iran, Syria and the group Hezbollah in Lebanon, which opposes US policies towards the Middle East and Israel.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the second-largest armed group in the region, are often united against Israel and are the most important members of the joint operations room that coordinates military activity among the various armed groups in Gaza.
The relationship between the two groups has been tense when Hamas has exerted pressure on Islamic Jihad to stop attacks against Israel.
Is Hamas targeting civilians?
Osama Hamdan, senior spokesperson for Hamas, told Al Jazeera that the group was not attacking civilians even though the group’s own videos have shown its fighters taking elderly Israelis hostage during the fighting on Saturday.
Rights groups such as Amnesty International have also pointed out that Israeli civilians had been killed by Hamas.
But Hamdan insisted that the group was attacking only settlers living in illegal settlements, whom he described as legitimate targets.
“You have to differentiate between settlers and civilians. Settlers attacked Palestinians,” Hamdan said.
Asked whether civilians in southern Israel were also considered settlers, Hamdan said: “Everyone knows there are settlements there.”
“We are not targeting civilians on purpose. We have declared settlers are part of the occupation and part of the armed Israeli force. They are not civilians,” he added.
