Hamas (حماس Ḥamās, an acronym of حركة المقاومة الاسلامية Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamat al-Islāmiyyah, meaning "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Islamic socio-political organization with an associated paramilitary force, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.[2][3][5][6] Since June 2007 Hamas has governed the Gaza portion of the Palestinian Territories, after it won a large majority in the Palestinian Parliament in January 2006 and then defeated rival Palestinian party Fatah in a series of violent clashes.[7] The European Union, the United States, and three other countries classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.[8][9][10][11][12]After Hamas's 2006 election victory, conflicts arose between Hamas and Fatah.[13][14] Following the June 2007 Battle of Gaza, Hamas retained control of Gaza and its officials were ousted from positions in the Palestinian National Authority government in the West Bank.[15][16] Israel and Egypt then imposed an economic blockade on Gaza.[17] In June 2008, Hamas ceased rocket attacks on Israel following an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, but attacks by other organizations continued despite Hamas efforts to prevent them.[18] Two months before the end of the six-month ceasefire the conflict escalated, after a November 4 Israeli incursion into Gaza killed seven Hamas militants, and this led to a renewal of Hamas rocket attacks.[18][19] In late December 2008, Israel attacked Gaza,[20] withdrawing its forces from the territory in mid-January 2009.[21]
Hamas's 1988 charter calls for replacing the State of Israel with a Palestinian Islamic state in the area that is now Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.[22] However, in July 2009, Khaled Meshal, Hamas's Damascus-based political bureau chief, stated Hamas's willingness to cooperate with "a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict which included a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders," provided that Palestinian refugees be given the right to return to Israel and that East Jerusalem be recognized as the new state's capital.[23][24] Hamas has in the past described its conflict with Israel as political and not religious,[25][26][27][25] but some journalists and advocacy groups believe that the Hamas Charter and statements by Hamas leaders have been influenced by antisemitic conspiracy theories.[28]
Gaza War
Main articles: Gaza war and United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict
On June 17, 2008, and after months of mediation by Egypt, Egyptian mediators announced that an informal truce was agreed between Hamas and Israel.[97] Israeli officials initially declined to confirm or deny the agreement[98] while Hamas announced that it would "adhere to the timetable which was set by Egypt but it is Hamas's right to respond to any Israeli aggression before its implementation".[99]On November 4, 2008 Israeli forces killed six Hamas gunmen in a raid inside the Gaza Strip.[100][101] Hamas responded with a barrage of rockets. During November, a total of 190 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel.[102]
On December 21, following the launch of more than 70 rockets from Gaza targeted at Israel,[103] Hamas issued a statement that they would consider renewing the expired truce—"if Israel stopped its aggression" in Gaza and opened up its border crossings.[104] The previous six weeks had seen a "dramatic increase" in attacks from Hamas, spiking at some 200 or so a day, according to the Israeli government.[105] On December 24, Israeli President Shimon Peres visited the western Negev town of Sderot which has been bombarded by Hamas rockets on a regular basis. Joining with residents in a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony, Peres said: "In Gaza they are lighting rockets and in Sderot we are lighting candles."[106]
Over the weekend of 27–28 December, Israel implemented Operation Cast Lead against Hamas. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said "We warned Hamas repeatedly that rejecting the truce would push Israel to aggression against Gaza."[107] Hamas has estimated that at least 100 members of its security forces had been killed.[108] According to Israel, militant training camps, rocket-manufacturing facilities and weapons warehouses that had been pre-identified were hit, and later they attacked rocket and mortar squads who fired around 180 rockets and mortars at Israeli communities.[109] The chief of Gaza's police forces, Tawfiq Jabber, head of the General Security Service Salah Abu Shrakh,[110] senior religious authority and official Nizar Rayyan,[111] and Interior Minister Said Seyam[112] were among those killed. Although Israel sent out thousands of cell-phone messages urging residents of Gaza to leave houses where weapons may be stored, in an attempt to minimise civilian casualties,[109] there have been widespread reports of civilian casualties[113][114] including allegations of the deliberate targeting of Palestinian civilians.[115]
Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire in their Gaza operations on January 17, 2009.[116] Hamas responded the following day by announcing a one week ceasefire to give Israel time to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip.[117] Israeli, Palestinian, and third-party sources disagree on the total casualty figures from the Gaza war, and the number of Palestinian casualties who were civilians.
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