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Mar 19, 2024 · Power in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the so-called Palestinian territories, has been divided among three entities: a governing body called the Palestinian Authority, the militant...
Dec 30, 2019 · The continued split between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Ahmed warned, is designed to consolidate de facto Hamas rule in Gaza and prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian...
Aug 6, 2022 · Middle East. West Bank & Gaza Strip. Explainer: Hamas vs. Islamic Jihad, Gaza's terrorist factions. While both groups reject Israel’s right to exist, there are differences between...
- Jake Pemberton
- 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?
Hamas is an Islamist militant movement that has controlled the Gaza Strip for nearly two decades. It also violently rejects Israel’s existence. In October 2023, Hamas infiltrated southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking dozens more hostage. In response, the Israeli military has attempted to eradicate the group, an effort that had repor...
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. Ismail Haniyeh currently serves as political chief, having replaced...
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 ...
Dec 14, 2023 · December 14, 2023. Hamas: Background, Current Status, and U.S. Policy. Hamas (or the Islamic Resistance Movement) is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist military and sociopolitical movement, and a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO). Hamas’s primary base of action and support is in the Gaza Strip, which it has controlled since 2007.
Aug 22, 2022 · August 22, 20224:55 PM ET. Heard on All Things Considered. By. Fatma Tanis. 4-Minute Listen. Playlist. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip take stock of militant groups there — Hamas and Islamic...
Oct 8, 2023 · 8 Oct 2023. The Palestinian armed group Hamas on October 7 launched a surprise attack into Israel in one of the most serious escalations in the Israel-Palestinian conflict in years. Hamas...
