(Bloomberg) -- With an attack on Israel of unprecedented scope on Oct. 7, 2023 the Islamist Palestinian group Hamas provoked a major new war. Hamas, which is dedicated to Israel’s destruction, has ruled the Gaza Strip, an isolated Mediterranean enclave that’s home to 2.2 million Palestinians, since 2007. It’s been designated a terrorist group by the US and European Union, and its suicide bombings and other attacks on Israelis were a factor in the breakdown of peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas’ rival, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). At the same time, Hamas has credibility among many Palestinians for its willingness to continue fighting Israelis.
Who leads Hamas?
That was no longer clear after the Israeli military said Oct. 17 that it had killed the group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, in an operation in Gaza. The Israelis say Sinwar was a key mastermind of the Oct. 7 assault. Following the assassination, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the country’s “mission” in Gaza is not over.
Thought to be 61 or 62, Sinwar helped found Hamas’ military wing in the late 1980s. Imprisoned by Israeli military authorities for murdering Palestinians collaborating with Israel, he became fluent in Hebrew and knowledgeable about Israeli society while behind bars before being released in 2011 in an exchange of Palestinian prisoners for an Israeli soldier held by Hamas. By 2017, he was the group’s leader for all of Gaza. He played a prominent role in creating an illusion before Oct. 7 that Hamas was limiting its embrace of violence to focus on governance.
Sinwar was named the political chief of Hamas in early August, replacing Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed on July 31 while visiting Iran, which backs Hamas. Both Iran and Hamas blamed Israel for the hit. In 2006, when Hamas won legislative elections, Haniyeh, who was born in 1962 in Gaza, headed a short-lived Palestinian government that was boycotted by most of the world because of its refusal to renounce violence against Israel.
Israel said Aug. 1 that it was certain it had killed the leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, a shadowy figure who’d been on the run for two decades, in a strike in Gaza in July.
What are the roots of Hamas?
Hamas, an acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, began as a spinoff of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist religious, social and political movement. The group was founded in the impoverished and overcrowded Gaza Strip in 1987 during the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Hamas initially gained popularity among Palestinians by establishing a network of charities that address poverty as well as health-care and educational needs. Though Hamas is a Sunni Muslim group, it has received funds, weapons and training from Shiite Muslim power Iran, which is also anti-Israel.
What does Hamas want?
Its main goal, as articulated in a revised charter issued in 2017, is the destruction of the state of Israel. The document describes all of the territory that is today Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as “an Arab Islamic land” and says Hamas rejects any option but its “complete liberation.” The group’s original charter said, “The day of judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews and kill them.” The revised charter states that the group’s conflict is with “the Zionist project,” not with Jews, per se. The newer document says “resisting the occupation with all means and methods is a legitimate right guaranteed by divine laws.”
How did Hamas come to power in Gaza?
In 2006 legislative elections in Gaza and the West Bank, Hamas campaigned against corruption in the Palestinian Authority, which is charged with administering limited Palestinian self-rule under agreements the PLO signed with Israel in the early 1990s. That led to Hamas’ surprise victory against the PLO’s main faction, Fatah, which dominates the authority. After months of fighting between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza, Hamas gained control of the territory in 2007 and has since used it periodically to launch rocket attacks and raids on Israel. Israeli forces had withdrawn from Gaza two years earlier while maintaining control, along with Egypt, over its borders. Israeli forces and civilian settlers are still present in the West Bank, which is of greater strategic and religious importance to Israelis.
How popular is Hamas?
Polls suggest that the war has increased the popularity of Hamas, at the expense of Fatah. In a survey of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank conducted in the runup to the Oct. 7 attack, if given a choice in new legislative elections, 34% of Palestinians who said they’d vote said they’d choose Hamas, versus 36% for Fatah. Support had increased to 45% for Hamas and dropped to 27% for Fatah in a poll conducted in early September.
What was Hamas’ role in the breakdown of peace talks?
Under the agreements between Israel and the PLO, limited Palestinian self-rule was meant to be an interim arrangement while the two sides negotiated a final settlement that was widely understood to entail the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Rejecting Israel’s existence, Hamas opposed the negotiations and launched a campaign of suicide bombings and other attacks that killed hundreds of Israelis. The violence eroded trust among Israelis that they could live securely with a Palestinian state next door. At the same time, Palestinians became more skeptical of the intentions of Israelis as they continued to expand settlements. The last round of peace talks broke down in 2014.
Have Hamas and Israel gone to war before?
During the time Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip, it fought half a dozen major military confrontations and a number of smaller flareups with Israel prior to the latest one. In those battles, Israel’s advanced military repeatedly devastated Gaza’s infrastructure and killed thousands.
How does Hamas get its weapons?
It smuggles some weapons into Gaza and makes others there. Israel and Egypt control their official border crossings with Gaza, and Israel controls Gaza’s airspace and patrols the territory’s Mediterranean coastline. Still, busts of smugglers have made it clear that there is a pipeline of weapons, weapons parts and weapons-making equipment into Gaza from Iran, notably via Egypt. The group’s ability to produce its own rockets and drones has improved over time, with Iranian technological assistance.
Why did Hamas chose Oct. 7 to attack Israel?
Hamas didn’t cite a particular reason, but the timing of the attack, in which 1,200 people were killed and 240 were taken hostage, was notable for a couple of reasons. First, it happened at a time of protracted Israeli infighting over a plan by Netanyahu’s government to weaken the judiciary. Members of the defense establishment had warned that Israel’s enemies might seek to exploit the disunity. The New York Times reported that minutes of secret meetings revealed that Hamas leaders referred to Israel’s “internal situation” as an argument for taking action.
The Times said the minutes also suggest Hamas was motivated by a desire to disrupt a diplomatic effort to seal a grand bargain in which Saudi Arabia, the richest and most powerful Arab state, would normalize relations with Israel in return for US security guarantees. Saudi Arabia wants an agreement with the US that would be as close as possible to a mutual defense pact — in which any attack on the kingdom would be seen by Washington as an attack on the US — to ease its concerns about Iran, which it blames for devastating strikes on Saudi oil facilities in 2019. Such a deal would further isolate Iran, Hamas’ patron, and expand the circle of Arab and Muslim countries friendly to Israel, Hamas’ enemy.
--With assistance from Ethan Bronner.
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