Terrorist, Islamist, anti-Israel: what does Hamas want?

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Israel and Hamas appear to be heading towards war again after the Palestinian militant group launched a massive surprise air and ground attack from the Gaza Strip. Who is the group that starts a new war?

Hamas is the largest militant Islamic group and one of the two main political parties in Palestine. It controls more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but the group is best known for its armed resistance to Israel.

The military wing has carried out suicide bombings and other attacks since 1993, mainly against Israeli civilians and soldiers. Repeated attempts at reconciliation between Hamas and the Palestinian Fatah party have failed, and the first Palestinian elections in fifteen years in which Hamas was to participate were canceled by President Mahmoud Abbas in April 2021.

According to its charter, Hamas is committed to destroying Israel and proclaiming the “Islamic way of life” throughout its territory: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam has wiped it out, just as it has wiped out the others wiped out for that.’

The charter further states: “The Islamic Resistance Movement is an important Palestinian movement whose allegiance is to Allah and whose way of life is Islam. She aspires to raise the flag of Allah over every inch of Palestine. to abolish Palestine.”

In the past, Palestinian expatriates and private donors in the Persian Gulf have provided much of the movement’s financing. In addition, some Islamic charities in the West have channeled money to Hamas-backed social service groups.

For years, Hamas has generated revenue by taxing goods transported into the Gaza Strip through an extensive network of tunnels that bypass the Egyptian border crossing; In this way, food, medicine and cheap gas for electricity generation, as well as building materials, cash and weapons entered the area.

Today, Iran is one of Hamas’s biggest benefactors, providing the country with money, weapons and training. Turkey has been another loyal supporter of Hamas – and a critic of Israel – since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 69, came to power in 2002.

Since 2006, Gaza militants have fought four major conflicts with Israel, which along with Egypt has maintained a blockade over the Gaza Strip to isolate and pressure Hamas to stop its attacks.

The deadliest incident to date in 2014 killed at least 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians, during 50 days of fighting. On the Israeli side, 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed. Most recently, an 11-day conflict in May 2021 killed at least 256 people in the Gaza Strip and 13 in Israel before the attacks ended with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.

Hamas as a whole, or in some cases its military wing, is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom.

Source: Blick