HAMAS is an Islamist militant group founded in 1987 during the first Palestinian Intifada or uprising against Israel.
On October 7, 2023, they launched surprise land, air, and sea attacks on Israel, killing over 200 Israelis and leaving thousands more injured.
What is Hamas?
Hamas got its name from "Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamia," which is Arabic for Islamic Resistance Movement.
The organization is a Palestinian militant movement that also serves as one of the territories’ two major political parties, explains the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
Over the years, Hamas has carried out shooting, bombing, and rocket attacks in Israel.
Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza have fought multiple cross-border wars and have had numerous skirmishes since the group seized control of Gaza in 2007.
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Hamas as a whole, or in some cases its military wing, is designated a terrorist group by Israel, the US, the EU, and the UK, as well as other powers.
"To its supporters, though, Hamas is seen as a legitimate resistance movement," reported BBC.
In 1997, the US designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.
The United States Department of State says: "Historically, Hamas has received funding, weapons, and training from Iran and raises funds in Gulf countries.
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"The group receives donations from Palestinian expatriates as well as its own charity organizations."
On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel.
The IDF said that the group had fired over 2,000 rockets from Gaza, while some militants entered the state via land, sea, and air using paragliders.
We are on the verge of a great victory and a clear conquest on the Gaza front," Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said in a broadcast on Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television.
"Enough is enough, the cycle of intifadas [uprisings] and revolutions in the battle to liberate our land and our prisoners languishing in occupation [Israeli] prisons must be completed.”
Who is Hamas' leader?
Ismail Haniyeh is the current political chief of Hamas.
He was born in the Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip in 1962 to parents who fled Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
He received a degree in Arabic literature from the Islamic University of Gaza, where he also started his involvement with Hamas.
Haniyeh has been with the group since its inception and began climbing the ranks starting in 1997, in part due to his work as an aide of Hamas’ co-founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
From 2006 to 2007, Haniyeh served as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority.
In 2017, he replaced Khaled Meshaal as Hamas' leader.
He was re-elected in 2021 in an internal election, which he reportedly won unopposed.
What does Hamas want?
Put very simply, Hamas refuses to recognize Israel and wants Palestinians to be able to return to what they regard as their old home.
Back in 1988, under the Islamic militant's group charter, the group said it was committed to the destruction of Israel.
In its founding charter, Hamas called for setting up an Islamic state in historic Palestine.
This is the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, which also includes Israel.
This founding charter was filled with anti-Jewish references.
In 2017, the Associated Press reported on the release of a "seemingly more pragmatic political program aimed at ending the group’s international isolation."
AP added that the new blueprint stressed that Hamas bore no enmity toward Jews. It said its fight was with those occupying Palestinian lands.
Through its new manifesto, Hamas rebranded itself as an Islamic national liberation movement, rather than as a branch of the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood.
The document said that Hamas would accept a Palestinian state on 1967 borders.
It also dropped explicit language calling for Israel’s destruction, though it retained the goal of eventually “liberating” all of historic Palestine, which includes what is now Israel.
However, the group reaffirmed that it would not recognize Israel, renounce violence, or recognize previous interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals.
The updated policy was scoffed at by Israel, with the prime minister's spokesman saying: "When you look at what they tell their own people on Hamas's TV stations, in their mosques, in their schools, they are calling on a daily basis to destroy Israel."
Israel holds Hamas responsible for all attacks from the Gaza Strip.
Egypt, along with Israel, has been enforcing a crippling border blockade against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip since the group seized the territory in 2007.
Israel controls most of Gaza's borders and coastal territory, deciding who can get in and out of Gaza, including goods.
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Hamas has demanded that Israel stop its restrictions.
Hamas also claims Israel is occupying Palestinian land and resists occupation by launching rocket attacks from Gaza, while Israel retaliates to such attacks with further force.
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