Hamas

Hamas [Arab., = zeal], Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization that was founded in 1987 during the Intifada ; it seeks to establish an Islamic state in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip (the former mandate of Palestine ). An offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood , Hamas operates mosques, schools, clinics, and social programs but is best known in the West for its military wing, which has carried out numerous terrorist attacks on Israelis. Hamas opposed the 1993 accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which granted Palestinians gradual limited autonomy in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and called for complete Israeli withdrawal from both areas.

After 1993 Hamas's military wing carried out suicide bombings in Israel in an attempt to derail both that agreement and further negotiations. Hamas supporters were prominent among those who challenged the Palestinian Authority (which was dominated by Al Fatah, the main faction of the PLO), and its leaders have been subjected to mass arrests. The organization opposed the 1996 elections held in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank for the Palestinian Authority legislative council but did not call for a boycott; some Hamas sympathizers ran as independents. In 2004, Israel killed Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas's spiritual leader, in retaliation for continued Hamas attacks, and subsequently Hamas military leaders based in Damascus, Syria, became more influential than the political leaders in Gaza.

In 2005 Hamas ran strongly in local elections in Gaza and the West Bank, besting Al Fatah in many areas, and in the Palestinian Authority (PA) legislative elections in Jan., 2006, it won a majority of the seats and then formed a government. Accelerating tensions between Hamas and Al Fatah threatened to dissolve the PA in chaos in the spring of 2006, but when Hamas forces captured (June) an Israeli soldier and held in him in the Gaza Strip it provoked a major Israeli incursion into N and central Gaza and renewed fighting. A political stalemate with PA President Mahmoud Abbas over recognizing Israel and other issues led to tensions with the PLO that erupted at times into fighting in 2006. In 2007 Hamas and Al Fatah agreed to form a national unity government, but continuing clashes led to Hamas's seizure of control in the Gaza Strip (June, 2007), which then led Abbas to install a new government without Hamas.

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement founded in 1976 by Sheikh Yassin Ahmed, with the aim of creating an Islamic state in the former Palestine. Originally a non-militant organization, it became increasingly militant during the 1990s, launching terrorist attacks on Israeli targets. Opposed to the peace process between Israel and the PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION (PLO), which it regarded as a capitulation to Israel, Hamas carried out a number of suicide bombings in Israel in 1996, as a result of which many Israelis were killed and hawkish elements in Israeli politics were encouraged to vote out the peace-seeking Shimon Peres in favour of the right-wing Binyamin Netanyahu.

Hamas (‘Enthusiasm’) A Palestinian guerrilla organization formed in the Gaza Strip, where it was radicalized under conditions of poverty, unemployment, and Israeli military rule. Led by Sheikh Ahmad Jasin, it became well financed through annual donations from Iran of around $30 million, and managed to recruit around 8,000 guerrilla fighters. Together with Hezbollah it led the Intifadah and became one of the leading radical Palestinian organizations: almost half of the Palestinians in Israeli prisons are members of the organization. It opposed the Gaza–Jericho agreement and the subsequent rule of the rival PLO in the Gaza Strip, where it still enjoyed overwhelming support. Hamas not only opposed Israeli domination of Palestine, but also built hospitals and schools and was thus seen by much of the population as a positive influence as well. The continuing attacks by Hamas fighters against Israeli military and civilian targets led to a radicalization of the Israeli electorate, whose confidence in compromise achieved, for example, in the Oslo Agreements was undermined as the violence increased. At the same time, Arafat was unable to stop Hamas effectively, owing to the support it enjoyed in the Gaza Strip. By 2002 Hamas had succeeded in its aim, as the Wye Accord lay in tatters and a civil war in Palestine had commenced.