Hamas
Logo/Symbol
Hamas (Harakat
al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya, meaning "Islamic Resistance
Movement") is a Palestinian Islamist organization
established in 1987 to resist the Israeli military and
political occupation of the Palestinian-populated Gaza
Strip and the West Bank. The group formed during the
First Intifada (1987-1993), or uprising, against Israeli
occupation. It began as an offshoot of the banned Muslim
Brotherhood movement in Egypt. The group's stated
objective is establishing an independent Palestinian
state based on Islamic principles on the area that is now
composed of Israel, the Gaza strip, the West Bank and
East Jerusalem, and the destruction of the
State
of Israel.
Hamas has carried out
guerrilla/terrorist attacks against Israeli targets
during the Second Intifada (2000-Present), including
nearly 60 bombings against civilian Israeli
targets.
Competing in the
Palestinian Authority's first true parliamentary
elections, Hamas won the majority of seats (74 out of
132) in January, 2006. Hamas polled 44 percent of the
popular vote, enough to place them in control of the
Palestinian government.
In June and July, 2006,
Hamas and the other main Palestinian political party,
Fatah, engaged in street fighting and other violence as
they jockeyed for position and power.
In late June, 2006, Hamas
fighters entered Israel and captured an Israeli soldier,
sparking an Israeli military offensive into the Gaza
Strip.
In June, 2007, Hamas won
a brief Palestinian Civil War in the Gaza Strip,
defeating the rival Fatah party and ejecting them from
Gaza. This set up a de facto Hamas government in Gaza and
a rival Fatah government in the West Bank.
In living up to its
stated goal of resisting Israel, Hamas regularly launches
Qassem rockets into Southern Israel, provoking the
Israeli air strikes and invasion of Gaza in the
Gaza
War in 2008-2009.
In 2011 and 2012, Hamas
and other Palestinian Islamist factions continued to
launch rockets into Israel, sparking Israeli retaliation.
In November, 2012, Israel launched Operation Pillar of
Defense against the Gaza Strip.
See
also:
Arab-Israeli
Wars
Gaza
War
