Search results
Oct 7, 2023 · Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas have been at war since early October. It began when Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented attack on Israel from Gaza - the deadliest in Israel's history.
- Introduction
- What Are The Group’s Origins?
- Who Are Its Leaders?
- How Is Hamas Funded?
- Does Foreign Aid For Gaza Go Through Hamas?
- How Has Hamas Governed Gaza?
- How Has Hamas Challenged Israel?
- How Was Hamas’s Attack on Israel in 2023 Different?
- How Do Palestinians View Hamas?
- What’s Next For Hamas?
Hamas is an Islamist militant movement that has controlled the Gaza Strip for nearly two decades. It violently rejects the existence of Israel, which it claims is occupying Palestine. In October 2023, Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages. In response, Israel declared a war aimed at eradicatin...
Hamas, an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (“Islamic Resistance Movement”), was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian cleric who became an activist in local branches 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...
Hamas has a host of leadership bodies that perform various political, military, and social functions. General policy is set by an overarching consultative body, often called the politburo, which operates in exile. Local committees manage grassroots issues in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel has targeted top Hamas officials since the movement was foun...
Historically, Palestinian expatriates and private donors in the Persian Gulf provided much of the movement’s funding. Today, Iran is one of Hamas’s biggest benefactors, contributing funds, weapons, and training. Though Iran and Hamas briefly fell out after backing opposing sides in Syria’s civil war, Iran provides some $100 million annually [PDF] t...
Before the current war, Israel allowed Qatar to provide Gaza with hundreds of millions of dollars in annual assistance through Hamas. But foreign aid generally reaches Gaza via the PA and UN agencies, namely the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), though Hamas has reportedly diverted some of this aid. As a de...
Hamas became the de facto authority in Gaza shortly after Israel withdrew from the territory in 2005. The following year, Hamas won a majority of seats in the PA’s legislature and formed a government. It earned votes for the social services it provided and as a rejection of the incumbent Fatah, which many voters perceived as having grown corrupt at...
For decades, Hamas’s attacks on Israel mostly involved rocket and mortar strikes, mass shootings, and suicide bombings. Iranian security officials say that Tehran has provided Hamas with some weapons, but that Hamas gained the ability to build its own missiles after training with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and proxies. Israeli ...
Hamas’s 2023 assault on southern Israel, “Operation al-Aqsa Storm,” was extraordinary in its strategy, scale, and secrecy, analysts say. It began early on October 7, the Jewish Sabbath and an important Jewish holiday, with Hamas launching several thousand rockets into southern and central Israel, hitting cities as far north as Tel Aviv. Hamas milit...
Palestinian opinions of Hamas are mixed. Before October 7, the group hadbeen unpopular [PDF] in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, though Palestinians in both territories preferred Hamas to other political factions. Many experts say that PA President Mahmoud Abbas canceled the 2021 Palestinian national elections to prevent a likely Hamas victory. After ...
Israel is seeking to completely eliminate the threat that Hamas poses to Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that “total victory” is the objective. Israeli officials have said that Hamas no longer constitutesan organized fighting force in northern Gaza, while its Gaza-based leaders, such as Sinwar, are thought to be hiding below g...
Oct 7, 2023 · Hamas, or in some cases its armed wing alone, is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the US, the EU, and the UK, among others. Iran backs Hamas with funding, weapons and training.
3 days ago · Hamas, militant Palestinian nationalist and Islamist movement dedicated to the establishment of an independent Islamic state in historical Palestine. The group won an electoral majority in the 2006 legislative elections, but the legislature was dissolved the following year with Hamas left in control of the Gaza Strip.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
2 days ago · A spokesman for Hamas’s military wing vowed to “continue a long and painful war of attrition” against Israel. What do we know about Hamas’s remaining capabilities?
Oct 10, 2023 · What is Hamas? Hamas is a militant group that carried out the worst terrorist attack in Israel in decades on Saturday, killing 900 people and taking captive dozens of soldiers and civilians.
1 day ago · Hezbollah said it started firing on Israel in solidarity with Hamas, and Palestinians trying to survive Israeli attacks in Gaza, which have killed 41,909 people, according to the Ministry of ...
