The History of Hamas ?

Hamas is an acronym of Harakat al-Muqawamat al-Islamiyyah, meaning Islamic Resistance Movement. It is a socio-political organisation with an associated paramilitary force, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

 

 

 

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The Palestinian Islamist faction sprung up as an offshoot of Egypt”s Muslim Brotherhood to challenge the moderately secular Palestine Libera-tion Organization of the late Yasser Arafat. Hamas came into being during the First Intifada- a Palestinian uprising in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip that began in 1987 and raged for four years until a peace conference in Madrid in 1991.
Hamas was established in 1987, and has its origins in Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood movement, which had been active in the Gaza Strip since the 1950s and gained influence through a network of mosques and various charitable and social organisations. In the 1980s the Brotherhood emerged as a powerful political factor, challenging the influence of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and in 1987 adopted a more nationalist and activist line under the name of Hamas. During the 1990s and early 2000s,
the organisation conducted numerous suicide bombings and other
attacks against Israel. In the Palestinian legislative election of January 2006, Hamas gained a large majority of seats in the Palestinian Parliament, defeating the ruling
Fatah party.

What led to Gaza crisis? The murders of three Israeli teenagers, and the apparently retaliatory murder of Palestinian teenager Mohammad Abu ­Khieder, ignited the Gaza crisis. Before Israel occupied Gaza, it was controlled for some years by Egypt, which borders Gaza on the west. Israel took it from Egypt during the 1967 war between the two countries, and until 2005 it occupied the Gaza Strip. Since Israel”s 2005 disengagement, Israel and Hamas have fought three separate wars: in 2006, in 2008-9, and in 2012; Because Hamas can”t get much through the Israeli blockade, they’ve digged tunnels into Egypt to resupply Gaza. Smugglers supply them with goods that Israel can”t or won”t let through Following the ousting of the Egypt”s Muslim Brotherhood government and the closing of tunnels to and from the Gaza Strip (2013), Hamas”s popularity and Gaza”s economy have taken a hit. Since the Egyptian military seized rule over Egypt from the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013, they”ve weakened the tunnel system. There is only one major supply route to Gaza that isn”t a tunnel or Israeli-controlled: the Rafah crossing into Egypt. According to some experts Hamas has engaged in the current war to pressure Egypt to open up Rafah to aid the Palestinian cause.?

After the elections, conflicts arose between Hamas and Fatah, which they were unable to resolve. In June 2007, Hamas defeated Fatah in a series of violent clashes, and since that time Hamas has governed the Gaza portion of the Palestinian Territories, while at the same time they were ousted from government positions in the West Bank. Israel and Egypt then imposed an economic blockade on Gaza and largely sealed their borders with the territory.

—Bureau Report?