By Sarah El Deeb, BEIRUT
Lebanon
Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, launched an attack inside Israel over the weekend, killing hundreds and taking others hostage. Its unprecedented breach of the border sent fighters inside border communities and military installations, shocked Israel and its allies, and raised questions about the group’s capabilities and strategy.
The group was founded in 1987
by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian refugee living in Gaza, during the first
intifada, or uprising, which was marked 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 has vowed to
annihilate Israel and has been responsible for many suicide bombings and other
deadly attacks on civilians and Israeli soldiers.
The U.S. State Department has
designated Hamas a terrorist group in 1997. The European Union and other
Western countries also consider it a terrorist organization.
Hamas won 2006 parliamentary
elections elections and in 2007 violently seized control of the Gaza Strip from
the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian
Authority, dominated by rival Fatah movement, administers semi-autonomous areas
of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Yahya Sinwar is the current Palestinian
leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip
Israel responded to the Hamas
takeover with a blockade on Gaza, restricting movement of people and goods in
and out of the territory in a step it says is needed to keep the group from
developing weapons. The blockade has ravaged Gaza’s economy, and Palestinians
accuse Israel of collective punishment.
Over the years, Hamas received
backing from Arab countries, such as Qatar and Turkey. Recently, it’s moved
closer to Iran and its allies.
Hamas
founder and spiritual leader Yassin — a paralyzed man who used a wheelchair —
spent years in Israeli prisons and oversaw the establishment of Hamas’ military
wing, which carried out its first suicide attack in 1993.
Israeli forces have targeted
Hamas leaders throughout the years, killing Yassin in 2004.
Khaled Mashaal, an exiled
Hamas member who survived an earlier Israeli assassination attempt, became the
group’s leader soon after.
Yehia Sinwar, in Gaza, and
Ismail Haniyeh, who lives in exile, are Hamas’ current leaders. They realigned
the group’s leadership with Iran and its allies, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Since then, many of the group’s leaders relocated to Beirut.
Hamas has always espoused
violence as a means to liberate occupied Palestinian territories and has called
for the annihilation of Israel.
Hamas has carried out suicide
bombings and over the years fired tens of thousands of increasingly powerful
rockets from Gaza into Israel. It also established a network of tunnels running
from Gaza to Egypt to smuggle in weapons, as well as attack tunnels burrowing
into Israel.
In recent years, Hamas had
appeared to be more focused on running Gaza than attacking Israel.
In recent years, Israel has
made peace deals with Arab countries without having to make concessions in its
conflict with the Palestinians. The U.S. has recently been trying to broker a
deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a bitter rival of Hamas’ Iranian backers.
Meanwhile, Israel’s new
far-right government was working to cement Israeli settlements in the West Bank
despite Palestinian opposition.
Hamas leaders say an Israeli
crackdown on militants in the West Bank, continued construction of settlements
— which the international community considers to be illegal — thousands of
prisoners in Israeli jails, and its ongoing blockade of Gaza pushed it to
attack.
Its leaders say hundreds of
its 40,000 fighters took part in the assault. Israel says the group has about
30,000 fighters and an arsenal of rockets, including some with a range of about
250 kilometers (155 miles), and unmanned drones.
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