Hamas - Wikipedia Hamas `` Islamic Resistance Movement '' redirects here. For the Iraqi group, see 1920 Revolution Brigade. Hamas حركة المقاومة الاسلامية Spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum Chief of the Political Bureau Ismail Haniya Deputy Chief of the Political Bureau Mousa Abu Marzouq and Khaled Mashal Founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Abdel Aziz al - Rantissi, Mahmoud Zahar and 4 others. Founded 1987 ( 1987 ) Preceded by Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood Headquarters Gaza, Palestinian territories Ideology Palestinian nationalism Sunni Islamism Islamic nationalism Islamic fundamentalism Anti-Zionism Antisemitism Political position Right wing ( in - exile faction ) to far - right ( domestic faction ) Religion Sunni Islam International affiliation Muslim Brotherhood Colours Green Legislative Council ( 2006 ) 74 / 132 Party flag Website hamas.ps/en Politics of Palestine Political parties Elections Hamas ( Arabic : حماس ‎ ‎ Ḥamās, an acronym of حركة المقاومة الاسلامية Ḥarakat al - Muqāwamah al - ʾIslāmiyyah Islamic Resistance Movement ) is a Palestinian Sunni - Islamic fundamentalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad - Din al - Qassam Brigades. It has been the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip since its takeover of that area in 2007. During this period it fought several wars with Israel. It is regarded, either in whole or in part, as a terrorist organization by several countries and international organizations, most notably by Israel, the United States and the European Union. Hamas was founded in 1987, soon after the First Intifada broke out, as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which in its Gaza branch had been non-confrontational towards Israel, refrained from resistance, and was hostile to the PLO. Co-founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin stated in 1987, and the Hamas Charter affirmed in 1988, that Hamas was founded to liberate Palestine, including modern - day Israel, from Israeli occupation and to establish an Islamic state in the area that is now Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The group has stated that it may accept a 10 - year truce if Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders and allows Palestinian refugees from 1948, including their descendants, to return to what is now Israel, although clarifying that this does not mean recognition of Israel or the end of the conflict. Hamas 's military wing objected to the truce offer. Analysts have said that it seems clear that Hamas knows that many of its conditions for the truce could never be met. The military wing of Hamas has launched attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers, often describing them as retaliatory, in particular for assassinations of the upper echelon of their leadership. Tactics have included suicide bombings and, since 2001, rocket attacks. Hamas 's rocket arsenal, though mainly consisting of short - range homemade Qassam rockets, also includes long - range weapons that have reached major Israeli cities including Tel Aviv and Haifa. The attacks on civilians have been condemned as war crimes and crimes against humanity by human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch. A 2017 Palestinian Center for Public Opinion poll in the Palestinian territories revealed that Hamas violence and rhetoric against Israelis are unpopular and that a majority of Palestinians would rather Hamas `` accept a permanent two - state solution based on the 1967 borders. '' In the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, Hamas won a plurality in the Palestinian Parliament, defeating the PLO - affiliated Fatah party. Following the elections, the Quartet ( the United States, Russia, United Nations, and European Union ) made future foreign assistance to the PA conditional upon the future government 's commitment to non-violence, recognition of the state of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements. Hamas rejected those changes, which led to the Quartet suspending its foreign assistance program and Israel imposing economic sanctions on the Hamas - led administration. In March 2007, a national unity government headed by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas was briefly formed, but this failed to restart international financial assistance. Tensions over control of Palestinian security forces soon erupted in the 2007 Battle of Gaza, after which Hamas took control of Gaza, while its officials were ousted from government positions in the West Bank. Israel and Egypt then imposed an economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, on the grounds that Fatah forces were no longer providing security there. In 2011, Hamas and Fatah announced a reconciliation agreement that provides for creation of a joint caretaker Palestinian government. Progress stalled, until an April 2014 agreement to form a compromise unity government, with elections to be held in late 2014. Contents 1 Etymology 2 Aims 3 Leadership and structure 3.1 Consultative councils 3.2 Social Services Wing 3.3 Military wing 4 Finances and funding 5 History 5.1 Gaza Islamic roots and establishment of Hamas 5.2 Hamas Charter ( 1988 ) 5.3 1990s 5.4 Second Intifada 5.5 2006 presidential and legislative elections 5.6 Legislative policy and reforming the judiciary 5.7 Public freedoms and citizen rights 5.8 Hamas -- Fatah conflict 5.9 2008 -- 2009 Gaza War 5.10 After the Gaza War 5.11 2014 Israel -- Gaza conflict 6 Media 6.1 Children 's magazine 6.2 Al - Aqsa TV 7 Islamization efforts 7.1 In the Gaza Strip 7.2 In the West Bank 7.3 Tayyip Erdoğan 's Turkey as a role model 8 Antisemitism and anti-Zionism 8.1 Hamas Charter ( 1988 ) 8.2 Statements by Hamas members and clerics to an Arab audience 8.3 Statements by Hamas members and clerics to an international audience 8.4 Statements on the Holocaust 9 Violence and terrorism 9.1 Attacks on civilians 9.2 Rocket attacks on Israel 9.3 Attempts to derail 2010 peace talks 9.4 Themes of martyrdom 9.5 Guerrilla warfare 9.6 Extrajudicial killings of rivals 9.7 2011 -- 2013 Sinai insurgency 9.8 International designations as a terrorist organization 10 Criticism 10.1 Human shields 10.2 Children as combatants 10.3 Political freedoms 10.4 Human rights abuses 11 International support 11.1 Qatar and Turkey 11.2 U.S. - based support 12 See also 13 References 13.1 Bibliography 14 External links Etymology Hamas is an acronym of the Arabic phrase حركة المقاومة الاسلامية or Harakat al - Muqāwama al - Islāmiyya, meaning `` Islamic Resistance Movement ''. The Arabic word ' hamas ' ( حماس ) means `` courage '' or `` zeal ''. The Hamas covenant interprets its name to mean `` strength and bravery ''. Aims Hamas, as its name ( Islamic Resistance Movement ) implies, aims to liberate Palestine from the Israeli occupation by resisting it. And according to Hamas armed branch Izz ad - Din al - Qassam Brigades : `` To contribute in the effort of liberating Palestine and restoring the rights of the Palestinian people under the sacred Islamic teachings of the Holy Quran, the Sunnah ( traditions ) of Prophet Muhammad ( peace and blessings of Allah be upon him ) and the traditions of Muslims rulers and scholars noted for their piety and dedication. '' Al - Qassam Brigades aims to liberate all of Palestine from what they describe as Zionist occupation, and to achieve the rights of the Palestinian people that were robbed by the occupation, and it consider itself part of the movement of a project of national liberation. Leadership and structure Map of key Hamas leadership nodes. 2010 Longtime leader, Khaled Meshaal Hamas inherited from its predecessor a tripartite structure that consisted in the provision of social services, of religious training and military operations under a Shura Council. Traditionally it had four distinct functions : ( a ) a charitable social welfare division ( dawah ) ; ( b ) a military division for procuring weapons and undertaking operations ( al - Mujahideen al Filastinun ) ; ( c ) a security service ( Jehaz Aman ) ; and ( d ) a media branch ( A'alam ). Hamas has both an internal leadership within the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and an external leadership, split between a Gaza group directed by Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook from his exile first in Damascus and then in Egypt, and a Kuwaiti group ( Kuwaidia ) under Khaled Mashal. The Kuwaiti group of Palestinian exiles began to receive extensive funding from the Gulf States after its leader Mashal broke with Yasser Arafat 's decision to side with Saddam Hussein in the Invasion of Kuwait, with Mashal insisting that Iraq withdraw. On 6 May 2017, Hamas ' Shura Council chose Ismail Haniya to become the new leader, to replace Mashal. The exact nature of the organization is unclear, secrecy being maintained for fear of Israeli assassinations and to conceal operational activities. Formally, Hamas maintains the wings are separate and independent. Matthew Levitt maintains this is a public myth. Davis argues that they are both separate and combined for reasons of internal and external political necessity. Communication between the political and military wings of Hamas is difficult, owing to the thoroughness of Israeli intelligence surveillance and the existence of an extensive base of informants. After the assassination of Abdel Aziz al - Rantisi the occasional political direction of the militant wing diminished, with field commanders given discretional autonomy on operations. Consultative councils The governing body is the Majlis al - Shura. The principle behind the Council is based on the Qur'anic concept of consultation and popular assembly ( shura ), which Hamas leaders argue provides for democracy within an Islamic framework. As the organization grew more complex and Israeli pressure increased it needed a broader base for decisions, the Shura Council was renamed the ' General Consultative Council ', elected from members of local council groups and this in turn elected a 15 - member Politburo ( al - Maktab al - Siyasi ) that made decisions at the highest level. Representatives come from Gaza, the West Bank, leaders in exile and Israeli prisons. This organ was located in Damascus until the Syrian Civil War led it to transfer to Qatar in January 2012, when Hamas sided with the civil opposition against the regime of Bashar al - Assad. Social services wing Hamas developed its social welfare programme by replicating the model established by Egypt 's Muslim Brotherhood. For them, charity and the development of one 's community are prescribed by religion, and, at the same time, are to be understood as forms of resistance. In Islamic tradition dawah ( lit. ' the call to God ' ) obliges the faithful to reach out to others by both proselytising and by charitable works, and typically the latter centre on the mosques which make use of both waqf endowment resources and charitable donations ( zakat ) to fund grassroots services like nurseries, schools, orphanages, soup kitchens, women 's activities, library services and even sporting clubs within a larger context of preaching and political discussions. In the 1990s, some 85 % of its budget was allocated to the provision of social services. It has been called perhaps the most significant social services actor in Palestine. By 2000 it or its affiliated charities ran roughly 40 % of the social institutions in the West Bank and Gaza and, with other Islamic charities, by 2005 was supporting 120,000 individuals with monthly financial support in Gaza. Part of the appeal of these institutions is that they fill a vacuum in the administration by the PLO of the Palestinian territories, which had failed to cater to the demand for jobs and broad social services, and is widely viewed as corrupt. As late as 2005, the budget of Hamas, drawing on global charity contributions, was mostly tied up in covering running expenses for its social programmes, which extended from the supply of housing, food and water for the needy to more general functions like financial aid, medical assistance, educational development and religious instruction. A certain accounting flexibility allowed these funds to cover both charitable causes and military operations, permitting transfer from one to the other. The dawah infrastructure itself was understood, within the Palestinian context, as providing the soil from which a militant opposition to the occupation would flower. In this regard it differs from the rival Palestinian Islamic Jihad which lacks any social welfare network, and relies on spectacular terrorist attacks to recruit adherents. In 2007, through funding from Iran, Hamas managed to allocate at a cost of $60 million, monthly stipends of $100 for 100,000 workers, and a similar sum for 3,000 fishermen laid idle by Israel 's imposition of restrictions on fishing offshore, plus grants totalling $45 million to detainees and their families. Matthew Levitt argues that Hamas grants to people are subject to a rigorous cost - benefit analysis of how beneficiaries will support Hamas, with those linked to terrorist activities receiving more than others. Israel holds the families of suicide bombers accountable and bulldozes their homes, whereas the families of Hamas activists who have been killed or wounded during militant operations are given an initial, one - time grant varying between $500 -- $5,000, together with a $100 monthly allowance. Rent assistance is also given to families whose homes have been destroyed by Israeli bombing though families unaffiliated with Hamas are said to receive less. Until 2007, these activities extended to the West Bank, but, after a PLO crackdown, now continue exclusively in the Gaza Strip. After the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état deposed the elected Muslim Brotherhood government of Mohamed Morsi in 2013, Hamas found itself in a financial straightjacket and has since endeavoured to throw the burden of responsibility for public works infrastructure in the Gaza Strip back onto the Palestinian National Authority, but without success. Military wing Main article : Izz ad - Din al - Qassam Brigades The Izz ad - Din al - Qassam Brigades, Hamas 's military wing was formed in either mid-1991 or 1992, under the direction of Yahya Ayyash, a Hamas field - commander and bomb - maker assassinated by Israel in 1996. It was constituted from units associated with the earlier al - Jihad wa Da'wa, an umbrella group that had gathered in militants from various Islamic resistance cells like the Al - Mujahidun al - Filastiniun ( Palestinian fighters ). established by Salah Shehade in 1986. The wing takes its name from the prewar militant Palestinian nationalist Sheikh Izz ad - Din al - Qassam, though Hamas cells sometimes refer to themselves as `` Students of Ayyash '', `` Students of the Engineer '', or `` Yahya Ayyash Units ''. At the outset, weapons were hard to come by, and the organization began to resort to intermittent kidnappings of soldiers to secure arms and munitions. This approach had been justified two years earlier when, in the wake of the killing of some 20 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces dispersing protestors at the Al - Aqsa Mosque in 1990, Hamas had declared every Israeli soldier a legitimate target. Weapons found in a mosque during Operation Cast Lead, according to the IDF Ayyash, with a degree in electrical engineering, quickly improved Hamas 's strike capacity by developing IEDs and promoting the tactic of suicide bombings. By the time of the Al - Aqsa Intifada, Hamas 's laboratories had devised a primitive form of rocketry, the Qassam 1, which they first launched in October 2000, carrying a 500 gram warhead with a throw range of 4 kilometres. Both propellant and the explosive were manufactured from chemical fertilizers, though TNT was also tried. Over the next five years of the conflict, a 3 - kilogram - warhead - armed version with a strike range of 6 -- 8 kilometres, the Qassam 2, was also produced and in an incremental rise, these rocket types were fired towards Israeli settlements along the Gaza Strip : 4 in 2001, 35 in 2002, 155 in 2003, 281 in 2004, and 179 in 2005. By 2005, the Qassam 3 had been engineered with a 12 -- 14 kilometre range and a 15 kilo warhead. By 2006, 942 such rockets were launched into southern Israel. During the War with Israel in 2008 -- 2009, Hamas deployed 122 - mm Grad rocketry with a 20 -- 40 kilometre range and a 30 kilogram warhead and a variety of guided Kornet antitank missiles. By 2012 Hamas had engineered a version of the Fajr - 5 rocket, which was capable of reaching as far as Tel Aviv, as was shown after the assassination of Ahmed Jabari in that year. In the 2014 war its advanced rocketry reached Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. Hamas deployed its increasingly sophisticated rocketry to replace its martyrdom operations. While the number of members is known only to the Brigades leadership, Israel estimates the Brigades have a core of several hundred members who receive military style training, including training in Iran and in Syria ( before the Syrian Civil War ). Additionally, the brigades have an estimated 10,000 -- 17,000 operatives, forming a backup force whenever circumstances call for reinforcements for the Brigade. Recruitment training lasts for two years. The group 's ideology outlines its aim as the liberation of Palestine and the restoration of Palestinian rights under the dispensations set forth in the Qur'an, and this translates into three policy priorities : To evoke the spirit of Jihad ( Resistance ) among Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims ; to defend Palestinians and their land against the Zionist occupation and its manifestations ; to liberate Palestinians and their land that was usurped by the Zionist occupation forces and settlers. According to its official stipulations, the Izz ad - Din al - Qassam Brigades ' military operations are to be restricted to operating only inside Palestine, engaging with Israeli soldiers, and in exercising the right of self - defense against armed settlers. They are to avoid civilian targets, to respect the enemy 's humanity by refraining from mutilation, defacement or excessive killing, and to avoid targeting Westerners either in the occupied zones or beyond. In practice, Hamas altered its approach restricting actions to ' legitimate military targets ' by extended them to Israeli civilians after 7 years. Though between 1996 and 2001 it generally refrained from targeting Israeli civilians, it adopted sporadic suicide bombings in the wake of the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, when an Israeli settler in military fatigues, Baruch Goldstein, shot dead 29 Muslims at prayer in 1993. After the Al Aqsa revolt, the Brigades were behind most of the suicide bombings in Israel, a measure it defended as a form of `` reciprocity ''. Down to 2007, the Brigades are estimated to have lost some 800 operatives in conflicts with Israeli forces. The leadership has been consistently undermined by targeted assassinations. Aside from Yahya Ayyash ( 5 January 1996 ), it has lost Emad Akel ( 24 November 1993 ) Salah Shehade, ( 23 July 2002 ), Ibrahim al - Makadmeh, ( 8 March 2003 ) Ismail Abu Shanab, ( 21 August 2003 ) Ahmed Yassin ( March 22, 2004 ) and Abdel Aziz al - Rantisi, ( April 17, 2004 )., After Israel arrested hundreds of its members in May 1989, Hamas regionalized its command system to make its operative structure more diffuse, and minimalize the chances of being detected. The Izz ad - Din al - Qassam Brigades groups its fighters in 4 -- 5 man cells, which in turn are integrated into companies and battalions. Unlike the political section, which is split between an internal and external structure, the Brigades are under a local Palestinian leadership, and disobedience with the decisions taken by the political leadership have been relatively rare. Although the Izz al - Din al - Qassam Brigades are an integral part of Hamas, the exact nature of the relationship is hotly debated. They appear to operate at times independently of Hamas, exercising a certain autonomy. Some cells have independent links with the external leadership, enabling them to bypass the hierarchical command chain and political leadership in Gaza. Ilana Kass and Bard O'Neill, likening Hamas 's relationship with the Brigades to the political party Sinn Féin 's relationship to the military arm of the Irish Republican Army. quote a senior Hamas official as stating : `` The Izz al - Din al - Qassam Brigade is a separate armed military wing, which has its own leaders who do not take their orders from Hamas and do not tell us of their plans in advance. '' Matthew Levitt on the other hand argues vocally for the idea that Hamas 's welfare institutions act as a mere façade or front for the financing of terrorism, and dismisses the idea of two wings as a ' myth '. He cites Sheikh Ahmad Yassin stating in 1998 : `` We can not separate the wing from the body. If we do so, the body will not be able to fly. Hamas is one body. '' Finances and funding At the 1993 Philadelphia conference, Hamas leaders ' statements indicated that they read George H.W. Bush 's outline of a New World Order as embodying a tacit aim to destroy Islam, and that therefore funding should focus on enhancing the Islamic roots of Palestinian society and promoting jihad in the occupying territories. Hamas 's budget, calculated to be roughly US $70 million ( 2011 ), is derived in large part ( 85 % ) from foreign, rather than internal Palestinian, sources. Only two Israeli - Palestinian sources figure in a list seized in 2004, while the other contributors were donor bodies located in Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Britain, Germany, the United States, United Arab Emirates, Italy and France. Much of the money raised comes from sources that direct their assistance to what Hamas describes as its charitable work for Palestinians, but investments in support of its ideological position are also relevant, with Persian Gulf States and Saudi Arabia prominent in the latter. Matthew Levitt states that Hamas also taps money from corporations, criminal organizations and financial networks that support terror, and is believed to engage in cigarette and drug smuggling, multimedia copyright infringement and credit card fraud. Vittori states that, more than other similar organizations, it is particularly careful about keeping resources for its militant, political and public works activities separate. The United States, Israel and the EU have shut down many charities and organs that channel money to Hamas, such as the Holy Land Foundation for Relief. Between 1992 and 2001 this group is said to have provided $6.8 million to Palestinian charities of the $57 million collected. By 2001 it was alleged to have given Hamas $13 million, and was shut down shortly afterwards. About half of Hamas 's funding came from states in the Persian Gulf down to the mid 2000s. Saudi Arabia supplied half of the Hamas budget of $50 million in the early 2000s, but, under U.S. pressure, began cut its funding by cracking down on Islamic charities and private donor transfers to Hamas in 2004, which by 2006 drastically reduced the flow of money from that area. Iran and Syria, in the aftermath of Hamas 's 2006 electoral victory, stepped in to fill the shortfall. Saudi funding, negotiated with third parties like Egypt, remained supportive of Hamas as a Sunni group but chose to provide more assistance to the PNA, the electoral loser, when the EU responded to the outcome by suspending its monetary aid. Iran in the 1980s began by providing 10 % of Hamas 's funding, which it increased annually until by the 1990s it supplied $30 million. It accounted for $22 million, over a quarter of Hamas 's budget, by the late 2000s. According to Matthew Levitt, Iran preferred direct financing to operative groups rather than charities, requiring video proof of attacks. Much of the Iran funding is said to be channeled through Hezbollah. After 2006 Iran 's willingness to take over the burden of the shortfall created by the drying up of Saudi funding also reflected the geopolitical tensions between the two, since, though Shiite, Iran was supporting a Sunni group traditionally closely linked with the Saudi kingdom. The US imposed sanctions on Iran 's Bank Saderat, alleging it had funneled hundreds of millions to Hamas. The US has expressed concerns that for Hamas obtains funds through Palestinian and Lebanese sympathizers of Arab descent in the Foz do Iguaçu area of the tri-border region of Latin America, an area long associated with arms trading, drug trafficking, contraband, the manufacture of counterfeit goods, money - laundering and currency fraud. The State Department add that confirmatory information of a Hamas operational presence there is lacking. After 2009, sanctions on Iran made funding difficult, forcing Hamas to rely on religious donations by individuals in the West Bank, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Funds amounting to tens of millions of dollars raised in the Gulf states were transferred through the Rafah Border Crossing. These were not sufficient to cover the costs of governing the Strip and running the al Qassam Brigades, and when tensions arose with Iran over support of President Assad in Syria, Iran dropped its financial assistance to the government, restricting its funding to the military wing, which meant a drop from $150 million in 2012 to $60 million the following year. A further drop occurred in 2015 when Hamas expressed its criticisms of Iran 's role in the Yemeni Civil War. History Main article : History of Hamas See also : First Intifada Gaza Islamic roots and establishment of Hamas Hamas rose as an offshoot of the Gaza Mujama al - Islamiya branch of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which had been actively encouraged by Israel to expand as a counterweight to the influence of the secular Palestine Liberation Organization. and had since 1973 been quiescent and non-confrontational towards Israel. Aside from developing Islamic charities to provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinians, it emphasized social justice ( adala ) and the subordination of the world to the sovereignty of God ( hakmiyya ). Hamas was founded in 1987, soon after the outbreak of the First Intifada, the first popular uprising against the Israeli occupation. Creating Hamas to participate in the revolt was regarded as a survival measure to enable the Brotherhood itself, which refused to fight against Israel, to hold its own against other competing Palestinian nationalist groups. By forming a military wing distinct from its social charity organizations, it was hoped that the latter would be insulated from being targeted by Israel. Co-founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin was convinced that Israel was endeavouring to destroy Islam, and concluded that loyal Muslims had a religious obligation into destroy Israel. The short term goal of Hamas was to liberate Palestine, including modern - day Israel, from Israeli occupation. The long - term aim sought to establish an Islamic state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Hamas Charter ( 1988 ) Main article : Hamas Covenant The foundational document, the Hamas Charter ( mīthāq ḥarakat ), is dated 18 August 1988, and contains both antisemitic passages, characterizations of Israeli society as Nazi - like in its cruelty, and irredentist claims that have never been revoked despite what some observers say are later policy changes in the organization regarding Israel, and the Jews, It declares all of Palestine waqf property endowed by God to Muslims, with religious coexistence under Islam 's wing. The charter rejects a two - state solution, envisaging no peaceful settlement of the conflict apart from jihad. It states that the movement 's aim is to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine, for under the wing of Islam followers of all religions can coexist in security and safety where their lives, possessions and rights are concerned ' ( Article 6 ) and adds that, ' when our enemies usurp some Islamic lands, jihad becomes a duty binding on all Muslims, for which the whole of the land is non-negotiable, a position likened, without the racist sentiments present in the Hamas charter, to that in the Likud party platform and in movements like Gush Emunim. For Hamas, to concede territory is seen as equivalent to renouncing Islam itself. Decades down the line, Hamas 's official position changed with regard to a two - state solution. Khaled Mashaal, its leader, has publicly affirmed the movement 's readiness to accept such a division. When Hamas won a majority in the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, Haniyeh, then president - elect, sent messages to both George Bush and Israel 's leaders asking to be recognized and offering a long - term truce ( hudna ), along the 1967 border lines. No response was forthcoming. Mousa Marzook said in 2007 that the charter could not be altered because it would look like a compromise not acceptable to the ' street ' and risk fracturing the party 's unity. Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal has stated that the Charter is `` a piece of history and no longer relevant, but can not be changed for internal reasons ''. Ahmed Yousef, senior adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, added in 2011 that it reflected the views of the Elders in the face of a ' relentless occupation. ' The details of its religious and political language had not been examined within the framework of international law, and an internal committee review to amend it was shelved out of concern not to offer concessions to Israel, as had Fatah, on a silver platter. While Hamas representatives recognize the problem, one official notes that Arafat got very little in return for changing the PLO Charter under the Oslo Accords, and that there is agreement that little is gained from a non-violent approach. Richard Davis says the dismissal by contemporary leaders of its relevance and yet the suspension of a desire to rewrite it reflects the differing constituencies Hamas must address, the domestic audience and international relations. The charter itself is considered an ' historical relic. ' In March 2006, Hamas released its official legislative program. The document clearly signaled that Hamas could refer the issue of recognizing Israel to a national referendum. Under the heading `` Recognition of Israel, '' it stated simply ( AFP, 3 / 11 / 06 ) : `` The question of recognizing Israel is not the jurisdiction of one faction, nor the government, but a decision for the Palestinian people. '' This was a major shift away from their 1988 charter. A few months later, via University of Maryland 's Jerome Segal, the group sent a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush stating they `` do n't mind having a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders '', and asked for direct negotiations : `` Segal emphasized that a state within the 1967 borders and a truce for many years could be considered Hamas 's de facto recognition of Israel. '' In an April 2008 meeting between Hamas leader Khaled Mashal and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, an understanding was reached in which Hamas agreed it would respect the creation of a Palestinian state in the territory seized by Israel in the 1967 Six - Day War, provided this were ratified by the Palestinian people in a referendum. Hamas later publicly offered a long - term truce with Israel if Israel agreed to return to its 1967 borders and grant the `` right of return '' to all Palestinian refugees. In November 2008, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh re-stated that Hamas was willing to accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, and offered Israel a long - term truce `` if Israel recognized the Palestinians ' national rights ''. In 2009, in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki - moon, Haniyeh repeated his group 's support for a two - state settlement based on 1967 borders : `` We would never thwart efforts to create an independent Palestinian state with borders ( from ) June 4, 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital. '' On December 1, 2010, Ismail Haniyeh again repeated, `` We accept a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and the resolution of the issue of refugees, '' and `` Hamas will respect the results ( of a referendum ) regardless of whether it differs with its ideology and principles. '' In February 2012, according to the Palestinian authority, Hamas forswore the use of violence. Evidence for this was provided by an eruption of violence from Islamic Jihad in March 2012 after an Israeli assassination of a Jihad leader, during which Hamas refrained from attacking Israel. `` Israel -- despite its mantra that because Hamas is sovereign in Gaza it is responsible for what goes on there -- almost seems to understand, '' wrote Israeli journalists Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel, `` and has not bombed Hamas offices or installations ''. Israel has rejected some truce offers by Hamas because it contends the group uses them to prepare for more fighting rather than peace. The Atlantic magazine columnist Jeffrey Goldberg, along with other analysts, believes Hamas may be incapable of permanent reconciliation with Israel. Mkhaimer Abusada, a political scientist at Al Azhar University, writes that Hamas talks `` of hudna ( temporary ceasefire ), not of peace or reconciliation with Israel. They believe over time they will be strong enough to liberate all historic Palestine. '' 1990s Hamas carried out its first attack against Israel in 1989, abducting and killing two soldiers. The Israel Defense Forces immediately arrested Yassin and sentenced him to life in prison, and deported 400 Hamas activists, including Zahar, to South Lebanon, which at the time was occupied by Israel. During this time Hamas built a relationship with Hezbollah. Hamas 's military branch, the Izz ad - Din al - Qassam Brigades, was created in 1991. During the 1990s the al - Qassam Brigades conducted numerous attacks on Israel, with both civilian and military victims. In April 1993, suicide bombings in the West Bank began. After the February 1994 massacre by Baruch Goldstein of 30 Muslim civilians in a Hebron mosque, the al - Qassam Brigades began suicide attacks inside Israel. In December 1992 Israel responded to the killing of a border police officer by deporting 415 leading figures of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to Lebanon, which provoked international condemnation and a unanimous UN Security Council resolution condemning the action. Although the suicide attacks by the al - Qassam Brigades and other groups violated the 1993 Oslo accords ( which Hamas opposed ), Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat was reluctant to pursue the attackers and may have had inadequate means to do so. Some analysts state that the Palestinian Authority could have stopped the suicide and other attacks on civilians but refused to do so. According to the Congressional Research Service, Hamas admitted to having executed Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israeli authorities in the 1990s. A transcript of a training film by the al - Qassam Brigades tells how Hamas operatives kidnapped Palestinians accused of collaboration and then forced confessions before executing them. In 1996, Yahya Ayash, the chief bombmaker of Hamas and the leader of the West Bank battalion of the Izz ad - Din al - Qassam Brigades, was assassinated by the Israeli secret service. In September 1997, Israeli agents in Jordan attempted but failed to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Mashal, leading to chilled relations between the two countries and release of Sheikh Yassin, Hamas 's spiritual leader, from Israeli prison. Two years later Hamas was banned in Jordan, reportedly in part at the request of the United States, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority. Jordan 's King Abdullah feared the activities of Hamas and its Jordanian allies would jeopardize peace negotiations with Israel, and accused Hamas of engaging in illegitimate activities within Jordan. In mid-September 1999, authorities arrested Hamas leaders Khaled Mashal and Ibrahim Ghosheh on their return from a visit to Iran, and charged them with being members of an illegal organization, storing weapons, conducting military exercises, and using Jordan as a training base. Hamas leaders denied the charges. Mashal was exiled and eventually settled in Syria. He fled to Qatar in 2012 as a result of the Syrian civil war. Second Intifada The aftermath of a bus bombing in Haifa in 2003. Al - Qassam Brigades militants were among the armed groups that launched both military - style attacks and suicide bombings against Israeli civilian and military targets during the Second Intifada ( also known as the Al - Aqsa Intifada ( Arabic : انتفاضة الأقصى ‎ ‎, Intifā ḍat El Aq ṣa ; Hebrew : אינתיפאדת אל - אקצה ‎ ‎, Intifādat El - Aqtzah ), which began in late September 2000. This Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule in the occupied territories was much more violent than the First Intifada. The military and civilian death toll is estimated at 5500 Palestinians and more than 1100 Israelis, as well as 64 foreigners. A 2007 study of Palestinian suicide bombings during the second intifada ( September 2000 through August 2005 ) found that about 40 percent were carried out by the al - Qassam Brigades. The immediate trigger for the uprising is disputed, but a more general cause, writes U.S. political science professor Jeremy Pressman, was `` popular Palestinian discontent ( that ) grew during the Oslo peace process because the reality on the ground did not match the expectations created by the peace agreements ''. Hamas would be the beneficiary of this growing discontent in the 2006 Palestinian Authority legislative elections. In January 2004, Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said that the group would end armed resistance against Israel in exchange for a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and east Jerusalem, and that restoring Palestinians ' `` historical rights '' ( relating to the 1948 Palestinian exodus ) `` would be left for future generations ''. On January 25, 2004, senior Hamas official Abdel Aziz al - Rantissi offered a 10 - year truce, or hudna, in return for the establishment of a Palestinian state and the complete withdrawal by Israel from the territories captured in the 1967 Six Day War. Al - Rantissi stated that Hamas had come to the conclusion that it was `` difficult to liberate all our land at this stage, so we accept a phased liberation ''. Israel immediately dismissed al - Rantissi 's statements as insincere and a smokescreen for military preparations. Yassin was assassinated on March 22, 2004, by a targeted Israeli air strike, and al - Rantisi was assassinated by a similar air strike on April 18, 2004. 2006 presidential and legislative elections While Hamas boycotted the 2005 Palestinian presidential election, it did participate in the 2005 municipal elections organized by Yasser Arafat in the occupied territories. In those elections it won control of over one third of Palestinian municipal councils, besting Fatah, which had for long been the biggest force in Palestinian politics. In its election manifesto for the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, Hamas omitted a call for an end to Israel, though it did still call for armed struggle against the occupation. Hamas won the 2006 elections, winning 76 of the 132 seats to Fatah 's 43. Seen by many as primarily a rejection of the Fatah government 's corruption and ineffectiveness, the Hamas victory seemingly had brought to an end 40 years of PLO domination of Palestinian politics. In early February 2006, Hamas offered Israel a 10 - year truce `` in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories : the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, '' and recognition of Palestinian rights including the `` right of return ''. Mashal added that Hamas was not calling for a final end to armed operations against Israel, and it would not impede other Palestinian groups from carrying out such operations. After the election, the Quartet on the Middle East ( the United States, Russia, the European Union ( EU ), and the United Nations ) stated that assistance to the Palestinian Authority would only continue if Hamas renounced violence, recognized Israel, and accepted previous Israeli - Palestinian agreements, which Hamas refused to do. The Quartet then imposed a freeze on all international aid to the Palestinian territories. In 2006 after the Gaza election, Hamas leader sent a letter addressed to George W. Bush where he among other things declared that Hamas would accept a state on the 1967 borders including a truce. However, the Bush administration did not reply. Legislative Policy and reforming the judiciary `` Stress the separation between the three powers, the legislative, executive and judicial ; activate the role of the Constitutional Court ; re-form the Judicial Supreme Council and choose its members by elections and on the basis of qualifications rather than partisan, personal, and social considerations... ; enact the necessary laws that guarantee the neutrality of general prosecutor... ( and ) laws that will stop any transgression by the executive power on the constitution ''. Public freedoms and citizen Rights `` Achieve equality before the law among citizens in rights and duties ; bring security to all citizens and protect their properties and assure their safety against arbitrary arrest, torture, or revenge ; stress the culture of dialogue... ; support the press and media institutions and maintain the right of journalists to access and to publish information ; maintain freedom and independence of professional syndicates and preserve the rights of their membership ''. Hamas -- Fatah conflict Main articles : Fatah -- Hamas conflict and Battle of Gaza ( 2007 ) Hamas rally in Bethlehem After the formation of the Hamas - led cabinet on March 20, 2006, tensions between Fatah and Hamas militants progressively rose in the Gaza strip as Fatah commanders refused to take orders from the government while the Palestinian Authority initiated a campaign of demonstrations, assassinations and abductions against Hamas, which led to Hamas responding. Israeli intelligence warned Mahmoud Abbas that Hamas had planned to kill him at his office in Gaza. According to a Palestinian source close to Abbas, Hamas considers president Abbas to be a barrier to its complete control over the Palestinian Authority and decided to kill him. In a statement to Al Jazeera, Hamas leader Mohammed Nazzal, accused Abbas of being party to besieging and isolating the Hamas - led government. On June 9, 2006, during an Israeli artillery operation, an explosion occurred on a busy Gaza beach, killing eight Palestinian civilians. It was assumed that Israeli shellings were responsible for the killings, but Israeli government officials denied this. Hamas formally withdrew from its 16 - month ceasefire on June 10, taking responsibility for the subsequent Qassam rocket attacks launched from Gaza into Israel. On June 25, two Israeli soldiers were killed and another, Gilad Shalit, captured following an incursion by the Izz ad - Din al - Qassam Brigades, Popular Resistance Committees and Army of Islam. In response, the Israeli military launched Operation Summer Rains three days later, to secure the release of the kidnapped soldier, arresting 64 Hamas officials. Among them were 8 Palestinian Authority cabinet ministers and up to 20 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, The arrests, along with other events, effectively prevented the Hamas - dominated legislature from functioning during most of its term. Shalit was held captive until 2011, when he was released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. Since then, Hamas has continued building a network of internal and cross-border tunnels, which are used to store and deploy weapons, shield militants, and facilitate cross-border attacks. Destroying the tunnels was a primary objective of Israeli forces in the 2014 Israel -- Gaza conflict. On February 2007 Saudi - sponsored negotiations in Mecca produced agreement on a signed by Mahmoud Abbas on behalf of Fatah and Khaled Mashal on behalf of Hamas. The new government was called on to achieve Palestinian national goals as approved by the Palestine National Council, the clauses of the Basic Law and the National Reconciliation Document ( the `` Prisoners ' Document '' ) as well as the decisions of the Arab summit. In March 2007, the Palestinian Legislative Council established a national unity government, with 83 representatives voting in favor and three against. Government ministers were sworn in by Mahmoud Abbas, the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, at a ceremony held simultaneously in Gaza and Ramallah. In June that year, renewed fighting broke out between Hamas and Fatah. In the course of the June 2007 Battle of Gaza, Hamas exploited the near total collapse of Palestinian Authority forces in Gaza, to seize control of Gaza, ousting Fatah officials. President Mahmoud Abbas then dismissed the Hamas - led Palestinian Authority government. and outlawed the Hamas militia. At least 600 Palestinians died in fighting between Hamas and Fatah. Human Rights Watch, a U.S. - based group, accused both sides in the conflict of torture and war crimes. Human Rights Watch estimates several hundred Gazans were `` maimed '' and tortured in the aftermath of the Gaza War. 73 Gazan men accused of `` collaborating '' had their arms and legs broken by `` unidentified perpetrators '' and 18 Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel, who had escaped from Gaza 's main prison compound after Israel bombed the facility, were executed by Hamas security officials in the first days of the conflict. Hamas security forces attacked hundreds Fatah officials who supported Israel. Human Rights Watch interviewed one such person : There were eight of us sitting there. We were all from Fatah. Then three masked militants broke in. They were dressed in brown camouflage military uniforms ; they all had guns. They pointed their guns at us and cursed us, then they began beating us with iron rods, including a 10 - year - old boy whom they hit in the face. They said we were `` collaborators '' and `` unfaithful ''. They beat me with iron sticks and gun butts for 15 minutes. They were yelling : `` You are happy that Israel is bombing us ! '' until people came out of their houses, and they withdrew. In March 2012 Mahmoud Abbas stated that there were no political differences between Hamas and Fatah as they had reached agreement on a joint political platform and on a truce with Israel. Commenting on relations with Hamas, Abbas revealed in an interview with Al Jazeera that `` We agreed that the period of calm would be not only in the Gaza Strip, but also in the West Bank, '' adding that `` We also agreed on a peaceful popular resistance ( against Israel ), the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders and that the peace talks would continue if Israel halted settlement construction and accepted our conditions. '' Progress has stalled, until an April 2014 agreement to form a compromise unity government, with elections to be held in late 2014. 2008 -- 2009 Gaza war Main articles : Gaza War ( 2008 -- 09 ) and United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict On June 17, 2008, Egyptian mediators announced that an informal truce had been agreed to between Hamas and Israel. Hamas agreed to cease rocket attacks on Israel, while Israel agreed to allow limited commercial shipping across its border with Gaza, barring any breakdown of the tentative peace deal ; Hamas also hinted that it would discuss the release of Gilad Shalit. Israeli sources state that Hamas also committed itself to enforce the ceasefire on the other Palestinian organizations. Even before the truce was agreed to, some on the Israeli side were not optimistic about it, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin stating in May 2008 that a ground incursion into Gaza was unavoidable and would more effectively quell arms smuggling and pressure Hamas into relinquishing power. While Hamas was careful to maintain the ceasefire, the lull was sporadically violated by other groups, sometimes in defiance of Hamas. For example, on June 24 Islamic Jihad launched rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot ; Israel called the attack a grave violation of the informal truce, and closed its border crossings with Gaza. On November 4, 2008, Israeli forces, in an attempt to stop construction of a tunnel, killed six Hamas gunmen in a raid inside the Gaza Strip. Hamas responded by resuming rocket attacks, a total of 190 rockets in November according to Israel 's military. Destroyed building in Rafah, 12 January 2009 With the six - month truce officially expired on December 19, Hamas launched 50 to more than 70 rockets and mortars into Israel over the next three days, though no Israelis were injured. On December 21, Hamas said it was ready to stop the attacks and renew the truce if Israel stopped its `` aggression '' in Gaza and opened up its border crossings. On December 27 and 28, Israel implemented Operation Cast Lead against Hamas. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said `` We warned Hamas repeatedly that rejecting the truce would push Israel to aggression against Gaza. '' According to Palestinian officials, over 280 people were killed and 600 were injured in the first two days of airstrikes. Most were Hamas police and security officers, though many civilians also died. According to Israel, militant training camps, rocket - manufacturing facilities and weapons warehouses that had been pre-identified were hit, and later they attacked rocket and mortar squads who fired around 180 rockets and mortars at Israeli communities. Chief of Gaza police force Tawfiq Jabber, head of the General Security Service Salah Abu Shrakh, senior religious authority and security officer Nizar Rayyan, and Interior Minister Said Seyam were among those killed during the fighting. Although Israel sent out thousands of cell - phone messages urging residents of Gaza to leave houses where weapons may be stored, in an attempt to minimise civilian casualties, some residents complained there was nowhere to go because many neighborhoods had received the same message. Israeli bombs landed close to civilian structures such as schools, and some alleged that Israel was deliberately targeting Palestinian civilians. Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire on January 17, 2009. Hamas responded the following day by announcing a one - week ceasefire to give Israel time to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip. Israeli, Palestinian, and third - party sources disagreed on the total casualty figures from the Gaza war, and the number of Palestinian casualties who were civilians. In November 2010, a senior Hamas official acknowledged that up to 300 fighters were killed and `` In addition to them, between 200 and 300 fighters from the Al - Qassam Brigades and another 150 security forces were martyred. '' These new numbers reconcile the total with those of the Israeli military, which originally said were 709 `` terror operatives '' killed. After the Gaza war On August 16, 2009, Hamas leader Khaled Mashal stated that the organization is ready to open dialogue with the Obama administration because its policies are much better than those of former U.S. president George W. Bush : `` As long as there 's a new language, we welcome it, but we want to see not only a change of language, but also a change of policies on the ground. We have said that we are prepared to cooperate with the US or any other international party that would enable the Palestinians to get rid of occupation. '' Despite this, an August 30, 2009 speech during a visit to Jordan in which Mashal expressed support for the Palestinian right of return was interpreted by David Pollock of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy as a sign that `` Hamas has now clearly opted out of diplomacy. '' In an interview on May 2010, Mashal said that if a Palestinian state with real sovereignty was established under the conditions he set out, on the borders of 1967 with its capital Jerusalem and with the right of return, that will be the end of the Palestinian resistance, and then the nature of any subsequent ties with Israel would be decided democratically by the Palestinians. In July 2009, Khaled Mashal, Hamas 's political bureau chief, stated Hamas 's willingness to cooperate with a resolution to the Arab - Israeli conflict, which included a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, provided that Palestinian refugees be given the right to return to Israel and that East Jerusalem be recognized as the new state 's capital. In 2011, after the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, Hamas distanced itself from the Syrian regime and its members began leaving Syria. Where once there were `` hundreds of exiled Palestinian officials and their relatives '', that number shrunk to `` a few dozen ''. In 2012, Hamas publicly announced its support for the Syrian opposition. This prompted Syrian state TV to issue a `` withering attack '' on the Hamas leadership. Khaled Mashal said that Hamas had been `` forced out '' of Damascus because of its disagreements with the Syrian regime. In late October, Syrian Army soldiers shot dead two Hamas leaders in Daraa refugee camp. On November 5, 2012, the Syrian state security forces shut down all Hamas offices in the country. In January 2013, another two Hamas members were found dead in Syria 's Husseinieh camp. Activists said the two had been arrested and executed by state security forces. In 2013, it was reported that the military wing of Hamas had begun training units of the Free Syrian Army. In 2013, after `` several intense weeks of indirect three - way diplomacy between representatives of Hamas, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority '', no agreement was reached. Also, intra-Palestinian reconciliation talks stalled and, as a result, during Obama 's visit to Israel, Hamas launched five rocket strikes on Israel. In November, Isra Almodallal was appointed the first spokeswoman of the group. 2014 Israel -- Gaza conflict Main article : 2014 Israel -- Gaza conflict On 8 July 2014 Israel launched Operation Protective Edge to counter increased Hamas rocket fire from Gaza. The conflict ended with a permanent cease - fire after 7 weeks, and more than 2,200 dead. 64 of the dead were Israeli soldiers, 7 were civilians in Israel ( from rocket attacks ), and 2,101 were killed in Gaza, of which according to UN OCHA at least 1,460 were civilians. Israel says 1,000 of the dead were militants. Following the conflict, Mahmoud Abbas president of the Palestinian Authority, accused Hamas of needlessly extending the fighting in the Gaza Strip, contributing to the high death toll, of running a `` shadow government '' in Gaza, and of illegally executing scores of Palestinians. Hamas has complained about the slow delivery of reconstruction materials after the conflict and announced that they were diverting these materials from civilian uses to build more infiltration tunnels. Media In 2005, Hamas announced its intention to launch an experimental TV channel, Al - Aqsa TV. The station was launched on January 7, 2006, less than three weeks before the Palestinian legislative elections. It has shown television programs, including some children 's television, which deliver anti-semitic messages. Hamas has stated that the television station is `` an independent media institution that often does not express the views of the Palestinian government headed by Ismail Haniyeh or of the Hamas movement, '' and that Hamas does not hold anti-semitic views. Hamas produced several propaganda songs aimed to scare Israeli citizen including Shock Israel 's Security and `` Go, call a Gazan to rip Giv'ati ''. Children 's magazine Main article : Al - Fateh Al - Fateh ( `` the conqueror '' ) is the Hamas children 's magazine, published biweekly in London, and also posted in an online website. It began publication in September 2002, and its 108th issue was released in mid-September 2007. The magazine features stories, poems, riddles, and puzzles, and states it is for `` the young builders of the future ''. According to MEMRI ( three of whose seven founding staff had formerly served in the IDF ), the magazine includes incitement to jihad and martyrdom and glorification of terrorist operations and of their planners and perpetrators. as well as characterizations of Jews as `` murderers of the prophets '' and laudatory descriptions of parents who encourage their sons to kill Jews. In each issue, a regular feature titled `` The Story of a Martyr '' presents the `` heroic deeds '' of a mujahid from one of the organizations who died in a suicide operation, including operations against civilians, or who was killed by the IDF. MEMRI also noted that the magazine includes illustrations of figures, including child warriors, who embody the ethos of jihad and martyrdom, presenting them as role models. These include the magazine 's titular character, Al - Fateh ( `` The Conqueror '' ) -- a small boy on a horse brandishing a drawn scimitar -- as well as children carrying guns, and photos of Hamas fighters launching Qassam rockets. Al - Aqsa TV Main article : Al - Aqsa TV See also : Tomorrow 's Pioneers Al - Aqsa TV is a television channel founded by Hamas. The station began broadcasting in the Gaza Strip on January 9, 2006. Its programming includes ideologically tinged children 's shows, news talk, and religiously inspired entertainment. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the station promotes terrorist activity and incites hatred of Jews and Israelis. Hamas has stated that the television station is `` an independent media institution that often does not express the views of the Palestinian government headed by Ismail Haniyeh or of the Hamas movement, '' and that Hamas does not hold anti-semitic views. Al - Aqsa TV is headed by Fathi Ahmad Hammad, chairman of al - Ribat Communications and Artistic Productions -- a Hamas - run company that also produces Hamas 's radio station, Voice of al - Aqsa, and its biweekly newspaper, The Message. Islamization efforts In the Gaza Strip Main article : Islamization of the Gaza Strip The gender ideology outlined in the Hamas charter, the importance of women in the religious - nationalist project of liberation is asserted, while defining that role as one of manufacturing males and caring for their upbringing and rearing. This is not so different from Fatah 's view of women in the First Intifada and it also resembles the outlook of Jewish settlers, and over time it has been subjected to change. In 1989, during the first intifada, a small number of Hamas followers campaigned for the wearing of the hijab, which is not a part of traditional women 's attire in Palestine, for polygamy, and also insisted women stay at home and be segregated from men. In the course of this campaign, women who chose not to wear the hijab were verbally and physically harassed, with the result that the hijab was being worn ' just to avoid problems on the streets '. The harassment dropped drastically when, after 18 months UNLU condemned it, though similar campaigns reoccurred. Since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, some of its members have attempted to impose Islamic dress or the hijab head covering on women. Also, the government 's `` Islamic Endowment Ministry '' has deployed Virtue Committee members to warn citizens of the dangers of immodest dress, card playing, and dating. However, there are no government laws imposing dress and other moral standards, and the Hamas education ministry reversed one effort to impose Islamic dress on students. There has also been successful resistance to attempts by local Hamas officials to impose Islamic dress on women. Hamas officials deny having any plans to impose Islamic law, one legislator stating that `` What you are seeing are incidents, not policy, '' and that Islamic law is the desired standard `` but we believe in persuasion ''. The Hamas education ministry reversed one effort to impose Islamic dress on students. When the BBC in 2010 interviewed five `` middle - class '' women in Gaza City, the subjects generally indicated Hamas attempts to enforce conservative religious standards of dress had been largely rejected by the local population, with some expressing concern that the closure of Gaza would allow the proliferation of extremist enforcement attempts by low - level Hamas officials, and others indicating they were happy to see Hamas enforcing such requirements. They also cited examples of leniency by Hamas authorities, such as allowing widowed women to keep custody of their children so long as they did not remarry, and other relaxations in the enforcement of Shariah law. One woman noted that the environment was `` not as bad '' as during the First Intifada, when women were subject to public criticism and stonings for failure to obey conservative Islamic standards of dress. One woman complained that women were not free to speak their minds or travel alone, and added : `` Hamas want to force themselves onto the people. They want the people to submit to them, this is their cover. They destroyed the reputation of Islam, by saying we 're doing this because it is religion. This is how they won the elections. '' In 2013, UNRWA canceled its annual marathon in Gaza after Hamas rulers prohibited women from participating in the race. In the West Bank In 2005, the human rights organization Freemuse released a report titled `` Palestine : Taliban - like attempts to censor music '', which said that Palestinian musicians feared that harsh religious laws against music and concerts will be imposed since Hamas group scored political gains in the Palestinian Authority local elections of 2005. The attempt by Hamas to dictate a cultural code of conduct in the 1980s and early 1990s led to a violent fighting between different Palestinian sectors. Hamas members reportedly burned down stores that stocked videos they deemed indecent and destroyed books they described as `` heretical ''. In 2005, an outdoor music and dance performance in Qalqiliya were suddenly banned by the Hamas led municipality, for the reason that such an event would be forbidden by Islam, or `` Haram ''. The municipality also ordered that music no longer be played in the Qalqiliya zoo, and mufti Akrameh Sabri issued a religious edict affirming the municipality decision. In response, the Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish warned that `` There are Taliban - type elements in our society, and this is a very dangerous sign. '' The Palestinian columnist Mohammed Abd Al - Hamid, a resident of Ramallah, wrote that this religious coercion could cause the migration of artists, and said `` The religious fanatics in Algeria destroyed every cultural symbol, shattered statues and rare works of art and liquidated intellectuals and artists, reporters and authors, ballet dancers and singers -- are we going to imitate the Algerian and Afghani examples ? '' Tayyip Erdogan 's Turkey as a role model Some Hamas members stated that the model of Islamic government that Hamas seeks to emulate is that of Turkey under the rule of Tayyip Erdoğan. The foremost members to distance Hamas from the practices of Taliban and to publicly support the Erdoğan model were Ahmad Yousef and Ghazi Hamad, advisers to Prime Minister Hanieh. Yusuf, the Hamas deputy foreign minister, reflected this goal in an interview to a Turkish newspaper, stating that while foreign public opinion equates Hamas with the Taliban or al - Qaeda, the analogy is inaccurate. Yusuf described the Taliban as `` opposed to everything, '' including education and women 's rights, while Hamas wants to establish good relations between the religious and secular elements of society and strives for human rights, democracy and an open society. According to professor Yezid Sayigh of the King 's College in London, how influential this view is within Hamas is uncertain, since both Ahmad Yousef and Ghazi Hamad were dismissed from their posts as advisers to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Hanieh in October 2007. Both have since been appointed to other prominent positions within the Hamas government. Khaled al - Hroub of the West Bank - based and anti-Hamas Palestinian daily Al Ayyam added that despite claims by Hamas leaders that it wants to repeat the Turkish model of Islam, `` what is happening on the ground in reality is a replica of the Taliban model of Islam. '' Antisemitism and anti-zionism See also : Racism in the Palestinian territories According to academic Esther Webman, antisemitism is not the main tenet of Hamas ideology, although antisemitic rhetoric is frequent and intense in Hamas leaflets. The leaflets generally do not differentiate between Jews and Zionists. In other Hamas publications and interviews with its leaders, attempts at this differentiation have been made. In 2009 representatives of the small Jewish sect Neturei Karta met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza, who stated that he held nothing against Jews but only against the state of Israel. Some commentators have pointed out parallels between Hamas 's youth organization and Hitler Youth. According to writer Tom Doran, Hamas is not recognized as a neo-Nazi group because its members are not `` white Christians ''. Hamas has made conflicting statements about its readiness to recognize Israel. In 2006 a spokesman signaled readiness to recognize Israel within the 1967 borders. Speaking of requests for Hamas to recognize agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, senior Hamas member Khaled Suleiman said that `` these agreements are a reality which we view as such, and therefore I see no problem. '' Also in 2006, a Hamas official ruled out recognition of Israel with reference to West and East Germany, which never recognized each other. Hamas Charter ( 1988 ) Main article : Hamas Covenant Article 7 of the Hamas Covenant provides the following quotation, attributed to Muhammad : The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews ( killing the Jews ), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree ( evidently a certain kind of tree ), would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews. Article 22 states that the French revolution, the Russian revolution, colonialism and both world wars were created by the Zionists or forces supportive of Zionism : You may speak as much as you want about regional and world wars. They were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate, making financial gains and controlling resources. They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it. Article 32 of the Covenant refers to an antisemitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion : Today it is Palestine, tomorrow it will be one country or another. The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying. Statements by Hamas members and clerics to an Arab audience In 2008, Imam Yousif al - Zahar of Hamas said in his sermon at the Katib Wilayat mosque in Gaza that `` Jews are a people who can not be trusted. They have been traitors to all agreements. Go back to history. Their fate is their vanishing. '' Another Hamas legislator and imam, Sheik Yunus al - Astal, discussed a Koranic verse suggesting that `` suffering by fire is the Jews ' destiny in this world and the next. '' He concluded `` Therefore we are sure that the Holocaust is still to come upon the Jews. '' Following the rededication of the Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem in March 2010, senior Hamas figure al - Zahar called on Palestinians everywhere to observe five minutes of silence `` for Israel 's disappearance and to identify with Jerusalem and the al - Aqsa mosque ''. He further stated that `` Wherever you have been you 've been sent to your destruction. You 've killed and murdered your prophets and you have always dealt in loan - sharking and destruction. You 've made a deal with the devil and with destruction itself -- just like your synagogue. '' On August 10, 2012, Ahmad Bahr, Deputy Speaker of the Hamas Parliament, stated in a sermon that aired on Al - Aqsa TV : If the enemy sets foot on a single square inch of Islamic land, Jihad becomes an individual duty, incumbent on every Muslim, male or female. A woman may set out ( on Jihad ) without her husband 's permission, and a servant without his master 's permission. Why ? In order to annihilate those Jews... O Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters. O Allah, destroy the Americans and their supporters. O Allah, count them one by one, and kill them all, without leaving a single one. In an interview with Al - Aqsa TV in September 12, 2012, Marwan Abu Ras, a Hamas MP, who is also a member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, stated ( as translated by MEMRI ) : The Jews are behind each and every catastrophe on the face of the Earth. This is not open to debate. This is not a temporal thing, but goes back to days of yore. They concocted so many conspiracies and betrayed rulers and nations so many times that the people harbor hatred towards them... Throughout history -- from Nebuchadnezzar until modern times... They slayed the prophets, and so on... Any catastrophe on the face of this Earth -- the Jews must be behind it. On December 26, 2012, Senior Hamas official and Jerusalem bureau chief Ahmed Abu Haliba, called on `` all Palestinian factions to resume suicide attacks... deep inside the Zionist enemy '' and said that `` we must renew the resistance to occupation in any possible way, above all through armed resistance. '' Abu Haliba suggested the use of suicide bombings as a response to Israel 's plans to build housing units in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. In an interview on Lebanese television on July 28, 2014, Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan claimed : We all remember how the Jews used to slaughter Christians, in order to mix their blood in their holy matzos. This is not a figment of imagination or something taken from a film. It is a fact, acknowledged by their own books and by historical evidence. It happened everywhere, here and there. Statements by Hamas members and clerics to an international audience In an interview with CBS This Morning in July 27, 2014, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal stated : We are not fanatics. We are not fundamentalists. We are not actually fighting the Jews because they are Jews per se. We do not fight any other races. We fight the occupiers. On January 8, 2012, during a visit to Tunis, Gazan Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh told The Associated Press on that he disagrees with the anti-Semitic slogans. `` We are not against the Jews because they are Jews. Our problem is with those occupying the land of Palestine, '' he said. `` There are Jews all over the world, but Hamas does not target them. '' In response to a statement by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas that Hamas preferred non-violent means and had agreed to adopt `` peaceful resistance, '' Hamas contradicted Abbas. According to Hamas spokesman Sami Abu - Zuhri, `` We had agreed to give popular resistance precedence in the West Bank, but this does not come at the expense of armed resistance. '' In May 2009, senior Hamas MP Sayed Abu Musameh said, `` in our culture, we respect every foreigner, especially Jews and Christians, but we are against Zionists, not as nationalists but as fascists and racists. '' In the same interview, he also said, `` I hate all kinds of weapons. I dream of seeing every weapon from the atomic bomb to small guns banned everywhere. '' In January 2009, Gazan Hamas Health Minister Basim Naim published a letter in The Guardian, stating that Hamas has no quarrel with Jewish people, only with the actions of Israel. In October 1994, in a response to Isreael 's crackdown on Hamas militants following a suicide bombing on a Tel Aviv bus, Hamas promised retaliation : `` Rabin must know that Hamas loves death more than Rabin and his soldiers love life. '' The statement added that `` Hamas will not hesitate to retaliate severely against any attempt to harm our leaders. '' Statements on the Holocaust Hamas has been explicit in its Holocaust denial. In reaction to the Stockholm conference on the Jewish Holocaust, held in late January 2000, Hamas issued a press release that it published on its official website, containing the following statements from a senior leader : This conference bears a clear Zionist goal, aimed at forging history by hiding the truth about the so - called Holocaust, which is an alleged and invented story with no basis. (... ) The invention of these grand illusions of an alleged crime that never occurred, ignoring the millions of dead European victims of Nazism during the war, clearly reveals the racist Zionist face, which believes in the superiority of the Jewish race over the rest of the nations. (... ) By these methods, the Jews in the world flout scientific methods of research whenever that research contradicts their racist interests. In August 2003, senior Hamas official Dr Abd Al - Aziz Al - Rantisi wrote in the Hamas newspaper Al - Risala that the Zionists encouraged murder of Jews by the Nazis with the aim of forcing them to immigrate to Palestine. In 2005, Khaled Mashal called Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 's December 14, 2005 statements on the Holocaust that Europeans had `` created a myth in the name of Holocaust '' ) as `` courageous ''. Later in 2008, Basim Naim, the minister of health in the Hamas - led Palestinian Authority government in Gaza countered holocaust denial, and said `` it should be made clear that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian government in Gaza denies the Nazi Holocaust. The Holocaust was not only a crime against humanity but one of the most abhorrent crimes in modern history. We condemn it as we condemn every abuse of humanity and all forms of discrimination on the basis of religion, race, gender or nationality. '' In an open letter to Gaza Strip UNRWA chief John Ging published August 20, 2009, the movement 's Popular Committees for Refugees called the Holocaust `` a lie invented by the Zionists, '' adding that the group refused to let Gazan children study it. Hamas leader Younis al - Astal continued by saying that having the Holocaust included in the UNRWA curriculum for Gaza students amounted to `` marketing a lie and spreading it ''. Al - Astal continued `` I do not exaggerate when I say this issue is a war crime, because of how it serves the Zionist colonizers and deals with their hypocrisy and lies. '' In February 2011, Hamas voiced opposition to UNRWA 's teaching of the Holocaust in Gaza. According to Hamas, `` Holocaust studies in refugee camps is a contemptible plot and serves the Zionist entity with a goal of creating a reality and telling stories in order to justify acts of slaughter against the Palestinian people. '' In July 2012, Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, denounced a visit by Ziad al - Bandak, an adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, to the Auschwitz death camp, saying it was `` unjustified '' and `` unhelpful '' and only served the `` Zionist occupation '' while coming `` at the expense of a real Palestinian tragedy ''. He also called the Holocaust an `` alleged tragedy '' and `` exaggerated ''. In October 2012, Hamas said that they were opposed to teaching about the Holocaust in Gaza Strip schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency. The Refugee Affairs Department of Hamas said that teaching the Holocaust was a `` crime against the issue of the refugees that is aimed at canceling their right of return ''. Violence and Terrorism Main article : Criticism of Hamas Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel, December 2008. By year 2001 2002 -- 2006 2007 2008 2008 ceasefire Gaza War 2009 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Groups responsible Fatah Hamas Islamic Jihad PFLP DFLP PRC Ansar al - Sunna Force 17 Army of Islam Tawhid wal - Jihad Abdullah Azzam Brigades Mujahideen Shura Council Rocket types Mortar Qassam Al - Quds Katyusha Grad Fajr - 5 Cities hit Ashdod Ashkelon Beersheba Eilat Gedera Kiryat Gat Kiryat Malakhi Netivot Sderot Ofakim Yavne Tel Aviv Jerusalem Regional Council areas hit Hof Ashkelon ( Karmia Netiv HaAsara Yad Mordechai Zikim ) Eshkol ( Nir Oz Nirim Yesha ) Sha'ar HaNegev ( Kfar Aza Nahal Oz Nir Am ) Sdot Negev ( Alumim Sa'ad ) Merhavim * Be'er Tuvia * Yoav Bnei Shimon * Gush Etzion Settlements hit ( evacuated ) Atzmona Dugit Elei Sinai Gadid Ganei Tal Katif Kfar Darom Morag Netzarim Netzer Hazani Neve Dekalim Nisanit Rafiah Yam Slav Defense and response Civil defense in Israel Red Color Iron Dome ZAKA See also Rocket attacks on Eilat Lebanese rocket attacks on Israel Hamas has used both political activities and violence in pursuit of its goals. For example, while politically engaged in the 2006 Palestinian Territories parliamentary election campaign, Hamas stated in its election manifesto that it was prepared to use `` armed resistance to end the occupation ''. From 2000 to 2004, Hamas was responsible for killing nearly 400 Israelis and wounding more than 2,000 in 425 attacks, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2001 through May 2008, Hamas launched more than 3,000 Qassam rockets and 2,500 mortar attacks into Israel. Attacks on civilians In the first years of the First Intifada ( 1987 -- 1993 ), Hamas violence was directed first at collaborators with Israel and at individuals it considered moral deviants, and then later at the Israeli military. A new direction began with the formation of the al - Qassam Brigades militia in 1992, and in 1993 suicide attacks began against Israeli targets on the West Bank. Aftermath of 1996 Jaffa Road bus bombings in which 26 people were killed The first such attack occurred on April 16, 1993, when an al - Qassam Brigades operative detonated explosives in a car he parked next to two buses, one military and one civilian, in the West Bank town of Mehola, killing a Palestinian civilian and wounding 8 Israeli soldiers. After the February 1994 massacre by Baruch Goldstein of 30 Muslim civilians in a Hebron mosque, the al - Qassam Brigades expanded suicide attacks to target primarily civilians. The first of the suicide bombings that targeted civilians was at Afula on April 16, 1994, when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives - laden car next to a bus, killing nine ( including the bomber ) and wounding 50. The most deadly suicide bombing was an attack on a Netanya hotel on March 27, 2002, in which 30 people were killed and 140 were wounded. The attack has also been referred to as the Passover massacre since it took place on the first night of the Jewish festival of Passover at a Seder. Hamas has defended suicide attacks as a legitimate aspect of its asymmetric warfare against Israel. In 2003, according to Stephen Atkins, Hamas resumed suicide bombings in Israel as a retaliatory measure after the failure of peace talks and an Israeli campaign targeting members of the upper echelon of the Hamas leadership., but they are considered as crimes against humanity under international law. In a 2002 report, Human Rights Watch stated that Hamas leaders `` should be held accountable '' for `` war crimes and crimes against humanity '' committed by the al - Qassam Brigades. In May 2006 Israel arrested a top Hamas official, Ibrahim Hamed, who Israeli security officials alleged was responsible for dozens of suicide bombings and other attacks on Israelis. Hamed 's trial on those charges has not yet concluded. In 2008, Hamas explosives engineer Shihab al - Natsheh organized a deadly suicide bombing in Dimona. Since 2002, paramilitary soldiers of al - Qassam Brigades and other groups have used homemade Qassam rockets to hit Israeli towns in the Negev, such as Sderot. Al - Qassam Brigades was estimated in 2007 to have launched 22 % of the rocket and mortar attacks, which killed fifteen people between the years 2000 and 2009 ( see Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel ). The introduction of the Qassam - 2 rocket in 2008 enabled Palestinian paramilitary groups to reach, from Gaza, such Israeli cities such as Ashkelon. In 2008, Hamas leader Khaled Mashal, offered that Hamas would attack only military targets if the IDF would stop causing the deaths of Palestinian civilians. Following a June 19, 2008 ceasefire, the al - Qassam Brigades ended its rocket attacks and arrested Fatah militants in Gaza who had continued sporadic rocket and mortar attacks against Israel. The al - Qassam Brigades resumed the attacks after the November 4 Israeli incursion into Gaza. On 15 June 2014, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of involvement in the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers ( including one who held American citizenship ), saying `` This has severe repercussions. '' On 20 July 2014, nearly two weeks into Operation Protective Edge, Netanyahu in an interview with CNN described Hamas as `` genocidal terrorists. '' On 5 August 2014 Israel announced that Israeli security forces arrested Hussam Kawasme, in Shuafat, in connection with the murders. During interrogation, Kawasme admitted to being the mastermind behind the attack, in addition to securing the funding from Hamas. Officials have stated that additional people arrested in connection with the murders are still being held, but no names have been released. On 20 August, Saleh al - Arouri, a Hamas leader in exile in Turkey, claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of the three Israeli teens. He delivered an address on behalf of Khaled Mashal at the conference of the International Union of Muslim Scholars in Istanbul, a move that might reflect a desire by Hamas to gain leverage. In it he said : `` Our goal was to ignite an intifada in the West Bank and Jerusalem, as well as within the 1948 borders... Your brothers in the Al - Qassam Brigades carried out this operation to support their imprisoned brothers, who were on a hunger strike... The mujahideen captured these settlers in order to have a swap deal. '' Hamas political leader Khaled Mashal accepted that members of Hamas were responsible, stating that he knew nothing of it in advance and that what the leadership knew of the details came from reading Israeli reports. Meshaal, who has headed Hamas 's exiled political wing since 2004, has denied being involved in the `` details '' of Hamas `` military issues '', but `` justified the killings as a legitimate action against Israelis on `` occupied '' lands. '' Hamas suicide attacks on Israeli civilians have largely disappeared since 2005 ; this has coincided with an increase in rocket attacks. One analysis suggests that the decline in suicide attacks is not motivated by any lack of supplies or volunteers to carry out such operations, by enhanced Israeli security measures such as the West Bank barrier ( if Israeli actions were the reason, one would expect to see an equal decline in suicide attacks by all Palestinian factions, which is not observed ), or by a newfound desire for reconciliation with Israel on the part of Hamas. Rather, suicide bombings provoked targeted killings that decimated the leadership of Hamas, whereas rocket attacks have elicited weaker Israeli reprisals that have tended to harm the Palestinian population as a whole more than Hamas ( such as the blockade of the Gaza Strip ) -- thereby paradoxically increasing Hamas 's popular support. Rocket attacks on Israel Rocket attacks by Hamas have been condemned by Human rights organizations as war crimes, both because they usually take aim at civilians and because the weapons ' inaccuracy would disproportionately endanger civilians even if military targets were chosen. After Operation Pillar of Defense, Human Rights Watch stated that armed Palestinian groups fired hundreds of rockets at Israeli cities, violating international humanitarian law, and that statements by Palestinian groups that they deliberately targeted Israeli civilians demonstrated an `` intent to commit war crimes ''. HRW 's Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson said that Palestinian groups made clear that `` harming civilians was their aim '' and said that launching rockets at populated areas had no legal justification. International humanitarian law prohibits deliberate attacks on civilians and intentional violations can be war crimes. According to Human Rights Watch, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups have launched thousands of rockets into Israel since 2001, killing 15 civilians, wounding many more, and posing an ongoing threat to the nearly 800,000 Israeli civilians who live and work in the weapons ' range. Hamas officials have said that the rockets were aimed only at military targets, saying that civilian casualties were the `` accidental result '' of the weapons ' poor quality. According to Human Rights Watch, statements by Hamas leaders suggest that the purpose of the rocket attacks was indeed to strike civilians and civilian objects. From January 2009, following Operation Cast Lead, Hamas largely stopped launching rocket attacks on Israel and has on at least two occasions arrested members of other groups who have launched rockets, `` showing that it has the ability to impose the law when it wants ''. In February 2010, Hamas issued a statement regretting any harm that may have befallen Israeli civilians as a result of Palestinian rocket attacks during the Gaza war. It maintained that its rocket attacks had been aimed at Israeli military targets but lacked accuracy and hence sometimes hit civilian areas. Israel responded that Hamas had boasted repeatedly of targeting and murdering civilians in the media. According to one report, commenting on the 2014 conflict, `` nearly all the 2,500 -- 3,000 rockets and mortars Hamas has fired at Israel since the start of the war seem to have been aimed at towns '', including an attack on `` a kibbutz collective farm close to the Gaza border '', in which an Israeli child was killed. Former Israeli Lt. Col. Jonathan D. Halevi stated that `` Hamas has expressed pride in aiming long - range rockets at strategic targets in Israel including the nuclear reactor in Dimona, the chemical plants in Haifa, and Ben - Gurion Airport '', which `` could have caused thousands '' of Israeli casualties `` if successful ''. In July 2008 Barack Obama, then the Democratic presidential candidate, said : `` If somebody was sending rockets into my house, where my two daughters sleep at night, I 'm going to do everything in my power to stop that, and I would expect Israelis to do the same thing. '' On December 28, 2008, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement : `` the United States strongly condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel. '' On March 2, 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the attacks. Attempts to derail 2010 Peace talks See also : 2010 Palestinian militancy campaign In 2010, Hamas, who have been actively sidelined from the peace talks by Israel, spearheaded a coordinated effort by 13 Palestinian militant groups, in attempt to derail the stalled peace talks between Israel and Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority. According to the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Major Gen. Eitan Dangot, Israel seeks to work with Salam Fayyad, to help revive the Palestinian economy, and hopes to ease restrictions on the Gaza Strip further, `` while somehow preventing the Islamic militants who rule it from getting credit for any progress ''. According to Dangot, Hamas must not be seen as ruling successfully or be allowed to `` get credit for a policy that would improve the lives of people ''. The campaign consists of attacks against Israelis in which, according to a Hamas declaration in early September, `` all options are open ''. The participating groups also include Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and an unnamed splinter group of Fatah. As part of the campaign, on August 31, 2010, 4 Israeli settlers, including a pregnant woman, were killed by Hamas militants while driving on Route 60 near the settlement Kiryat Arba, in the West bank. According to witnesses, militants opened fire on the moving vehicle, but then `` approached the car '' and shot the occupants in their seats at `` close range ''. The attack was described by Israeli sources as one of the `` worst '' terrorist acts in years. A senior Hamas official said that Israeli settlers in the West Bank are legitimate targets since `` they are an army in every sense of the word ''. Themes of martyrdom See also : Martyrdom in Islam According to a translation by Palestinian Media Watch, in 2008, Fathi Hamad, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, stated on Al - Aqsa TV, `` For the Palestinian people death became an industry, at which women excel and so do all people on this land : the elderly excel, the Jihad fighters excel, and the children excel. Accordingly ( Palestinians ) created a human shield of women, children, the elderly and the Jihad fighters against the Zionist bombing machine, as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy : ' We desire death as you desire life. ' '' In 2010, Hamas speaker Ahmad Bahr praised the virtues of martyrdom and Jihad, and said that 2.5 million black - eyed virgins were waiting in the Garden of Eden, which could be entered only by prophets, by the righteous, and by martyrs. He continued by saying that nobody on Earth `` will be able to confront the resistance, or to confront the mujahideen, those who worship Allah and seek martyrdom ''. Guerrilla warfare Hamas anti-tank rockets, captured by Israel Defense Forces during Operation Protective Edge Hamas has made great use of guerrilla tactics in the Gaza Strip and to a lesser degree the West Bank. It has successfully adapted these techniques over the years since its inception. According to a 2006 report by rival Fatah party, Hamas had smuggled between several hundred and 1,300 tons of advanced rockets, along with other weaponry, into Gaza. Hamas has used IEDs and anti-tank rockets against the IDF in Gaza. The latter include standard RPG - 7 warheads and home - made rockets such as the Al - Bana, Al - Batar and Al - Yasin. The IDF has a difficult, if not impossible time trying to find hidden weapons caches in Palestinian areas -- this is due to the high local support base Hamas enjoys. Extrajudicial killings of rivals In addition to killing Israeli civilians and armed forces, Hamas has also murdered suspected Palestinian Israel collaborators and Fatah rivals. Hundreds of Palestinians were executed by both Hamas and Fatah during the First Intifada. In the wake of the 2006 Israeli conflict with Gaza, Hamas was accused of systematically rounding up, torturing and summarily executing Fatah supporters suspected of supplying information to Israel. Human Rights Watch estimates several hundred Gazans were `` maimed '' and tortured in the aftermath of the conflict. Seventy - three Gazan men accused of `` collaborating '' had their arms and legs broken by `` unidentified perpetrators '' and 18 Palestinians accused of helping Israel were executed by Hamas security officials in the first days of the conflict. In November 2012, Hamas 's Izzedine al - Qassam brigade publicly executed six Gaza residents accused of collaborating with Israel. According to the witnesses, six alleged informers were shot dead one by one in Gaza City, while the corpse of the sixth victim was tied by a cable to the back of a motorcycle and dragged through the streets. In 2013, Human Rights Watch issued a statement condemning Hamas for not investigating and giving a proper trial to the 6 men. Their statement was released the day before Hamas issued a deadline for `` collaborators '' to turn themselves in, or they will be pursued `` without mercy ''. In August 2014, during the 2014 Israel - Gaza conflict, at least 22 accused collaborators were executed by Hamas shortly after 3 of its commanders were assassinated by Israeli forces. An Israeli source denied that any of the commanders had been targeted on the basis of human intelligence. Frequent killings of unarmed people have also occurred during Hamas - Fatah clashes. NGOs have cited a number of summary executions as particular examples of violations of the rules of warfare, including the case of Muhammad Swairki, 28, a cook for Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas 's presidential guard, who was thrown to his death, with his hands and legs tied, from a 15 - story apartment building in Gaza City. Hamas security forces reportedly shoot and torture Palestinians who opposed Hamas rule in Gaza. In one case, a Palestinian had criticized Hamas in a conversation on the street with some friends. Later that day, more than a dozen armed men with black masks and red kaffiyeh took the man from his home, and brought him to a solitary area where they shot him three times in the lower legs and ankles. The man told Human Rights Watch that he was not politically active. On August 14, 2009, Hamas fighters stormed the Mosque of cleric Abdel - Latif Moussa. The cleric was protected by at least 100 fighters from Jund Ansar Allah ( `` Army of the Helpers of God '' ), an Islamist group with links to Al - Qaeda. The resulting battle left at least 13 people dead, including Moussa and 6 Hamas fighters, and 120 people injured. According to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, during 2014 Israel -- Gaza conflict, Hamas killed more than 120 Palestinian youths for defying house arrest imposed on them by Hamas, in addition to 30 -- 40 Palestinians killed by Hamas in extrajudicial executions after accusing them of being collaborators with Israel. Referring to the killing of suspected collaborators, a Shin Bet official stated that `` not even one '' of those executed by Hamas provided any intelligence to Israel, while the Shin Bet officially `` confirmed that those executed during Operation Protective Edge had all been held in prison in Gaza in the course of the hostilities ''. 2011 -- 2013 Sinai Insurgency See also : Sinai insurgency Hamas has been accused of providing weapons, training and fighters for Sinai - based insurgent attacks, although Hamas strongly denies the allegations, calling them a smear campaign aiming to harm relations with Egypt. According to the Egyptian Army, since the ouster of Egypt 's Muslim - Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi, over 600 Hamas members have entered the Sinai Peninsula through smuggling tunnels. In addition, several weapons used in Sinai 's insurgent attacks are being traced back to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to the army. The four leading insurgent groups in the Sinai have all reportedly maintained close ties with the Gaza Strip. Hamas is also accused of helping Morsi and other high - ranking Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood members break out of the Wadi Natroun prison in Cairo during the 2011 revolution. Hamas called the accusation a `` dangerous development ''. Egyptian authorities stated that the 2011 Alexandria bombing was carried out by the Gaza - based Army of Islam, which has received sanctuary from Hamas and earlier collaborated in the capture of Gilad Shalit. Army of Islam members linked to the August 2012 Sinai attack have reportedly sought refuge in the Gaza Strip. Egypt stated that Hamas directly provided logistical support to the Muslim Brotherhood militants who carried out the December 2013 Mansoura bombing. International designations as a terrorist organization Main article : International Positions on the Nature of Hamas Hamas, together with several charities it runs, has been designated by several governments and some academics as a terrorist organization. Others regard Hamas as a complex organization with terrorism as only one component. Israel outlawed Hamas in September 1989 The United States followed suit in 1995, as did Canada in November 2002. The European Union outlawed Hamas 's military wing in 2001 and included Hamas in its list of terrorist organizations in 2003, which Hamas successfully challenged in the courts, and continued to do so under American and Israeli pressure. The basis of Hamas 's challenge to the EU classification in 2007 was that it was drawn up on the basis of media reports, rather than grounded in any analysis of Hamas 's history. In July 2017, the European Court of Justice overruled this challenge, citing that the evidence of media reports was only used for keeping Hamas on the list, rather than to add it to the list in the first place. The European General Court found in favour of Hamas in 2014, though the verdict was appealed by the EU countries. In September 2016 a legal advisor to the European Court of Justice, Eleanor Sharpston, provided an advisory opinion, in favour of cancelling the listing of Hamas as a terrorist organization. She argued that the determination originally adopted was flawed, and that the EU can not `` rely on facts and evidence found in press articles and information from the internet '' in order to list organizations as terrorists. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom have designated the military wing of Hamas as a terrorist organization. The organization is banned in Jordan. It is not regarded as a terrorist organization by Iran, Russia, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, China, and Brazil. Criticism Human shields A Hamas rocket launch site and its civilian surroundings. After Operation Pillar of Defense, Human Rights Watch stated that Palestinian groups had endangered civilians by `` repeatedly fired rockets from densely populated areas, near homes, businesses, and a hotel '' and noted that under international law, parties to a conflict may not to place military targets in or near densely populated areas. One rocket was launched close to the Shawa and Housari Building, where various Palestinian and international media have offices ; another was fired from the yard of a house near the Deira Hotel. New York Times journalist Steven Erlanger reported that `` Hamas rocket and weapons caches, including rocket launchers, have been discovered in and under mosques, schools and civilian homes. '' Another report published by Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center revealed that Hamas used close to 100 mosques to store weapons and as launch - pads to shoot rockets. The report contains testimony from variety Palestinian sources, including a Hamas militant Sabhi Majad Atar, who said he was taught how to shoot rockets from inside a mosque. Hamas has also been criticized by Israeli officials for blending into or hiding among the Palestinian civilian population During the 2008 -- 2009 Israel -- Gaza conflict. The Israeli government published what it said was video evidence of human shield tactics by Hamas. Israel said that Hamas frequently used mosques and school yards as hideouts and places to store weapons, and that Hamas militants stored weapons in their homes, making it difficult to ensure that civilians close to legitimate military targets are not hurt during Israeli military operations. Israeli officials also accused the Hamas leadership of hiding under Shifa Hospital during the conflict, using the patients inside to deter an Israeli attack. The Israeli government filed a report entitled `` Gaza Operations Investigation : Second Update '' to the United Nations accusing Hamas of exploiting its rules of engagement by shooting rockets and launching attacks within protected civilian areas. Israel says 12,000 rockets and mortars were fired at it between 2000 and 2008 -- nearly 3,000 in 2008 alone. In one case, an errant Israeli mortar strike killed dozens of people near a UN school. Hamas said that the mortar killed 42 people and left dozens wounded. Israel said that Hamas militants had launched a rocket from a yard adjacent to the school and one mortar of three rounds hit the school, due to a GPS error. According to the Israeli military probe, the remaining two rounds hit the yard used to launch rockets into Israel, killing two members of Hamas 's military wing who fired the rockets. Human Right Watch called Hamas to `` publicly renounce '' the rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and hold those responsible to account. Human Right Watch program director Iain Levine said the attacks by Hamas were `` unlawful and unjustifiable, and amount to war crimes '', and accused Hamas of putting Palestinians at risk by launching attacks from built - up areas. Hamas spokesman relied that the report was `` biased '' and he denied that Hamas uses human shields. Human Rights Watch investigated 19 incidents involving 53 civilian deaths in Gaza that Israel said were the result of Hamas fighting in densely populated areas and did not find evidence for existence of Palestinian fighters in the areas at the time of the Israeli attack. In other cases where no civilians had died, the report concluded that Hamas may have deliberately fired rockets from areas close to civilians. HRW also investigated 11 deaths that Israel said were civilians being used as human shields by Hamas. HRW found no evidence that the civilians were used as human shields, nor had they been shot in crossfire. The Israeli ' human shields ' charge against Hamas was called `` full of holes '' by The National ( UAE ), which stated that only Israel accused Hamas of using human shields during the conflict, though Hamas `` may be guilty '' of `` locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas '' and for `` deliberately firing indiscriminate weapons into civilian populated areas ''. On July 8, 2014, Hamas 's spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri encouraged the `` policy of people confronting the Israeli warplanes with their bare chests '', saying it has proven itself. One survey of Gazan residents addressed the subject of human shields during the 2014 war, with respondents issuing statements such as `` People received warnings from the Israelis and tried to evacuate... Hamas shot some of those people... the rest were forced to return to their homes and get bombed '' ; `` Hamas imposed a curfew : anyone walking out in the street was shot without being asked any questions. That way Hamas made sure people had to stay in their homes even if they were about to get bombed '' ; and `` My father received a text - message from the Israeli army warning him that our area was going to be bombed, and Hamas prevented us from leaving. '' Israeli soldiers recounted `` Suddenly, a small boy appeared, and the terrorist grabbed him and escaped with him '' ; `` I saw with my own eyes someone using another person, a woman, as a shield... And I can see very clearly that the woman does n't want to be there and he 's pulling her with him '' ; and `` We even found explosives in nurseries. The whole neighborhood was practically a terrorist base. '' Israel has accused Hamas of using children as human shields. The Israeli government released video footage in which it claims two militants are shown grabbing a young boy 's arm from behind holding him to walk in front of them toward a group of people waiting near a wall. The IDF argues the militants were placing the boy between themselves and an Israeli sniper. The second scene shows an individual, described as a terrorist, grabbing a school boy off of a floor, where he is hiding behind a column from IDF fire, and using him as a human shield to walk to a different location. After 15 alleged militants sought refuge in a mosque from Israeli forces, the BBC reported that Hamas radio instructed local women to go the mosque to protect the militants. Two women were later killed when Israeli forces opened fire. In November 2006, the Israeli Air Force warned Muhammad Weil Baroud, commander of the Popular Resistance Committees who are accused of launching rockets into Israeli territory, to evacuate his home in a Jabalya refugee camp apartment block in advance of a planned Israeli air strike. Baroud responded by calling for volunteers to protect the apartment block and nearby buildings and, according to The Jerusalem Post, hundreds of local residents, mostly women and children, responded. Israel suspended the air strike. Israel termed the action an example of Hamas using human shields. In response to the incident, Hamas proclaimed : ' We won. From now on we will form human chains around every house threatened with demolition. ' '' In a November 22 press release, Human Rights Watch condemned Hamas, stating : `` There is no excuse for calling civilians to the scene of a planned attack. Whether or not the home is a legitimate military target, knowingly asking civilians to stand in harm 's way is unlawful. '' Following criticism, Human rights Watch issued a statement saying that their initial assessment of the situation was in error. They stated that, on the basis of available evidence, the home demolition was in fact an administrative act, viewed in the context of Israel 's longstanding policy of punitive home demolitions, not a military act and thus would not fall within the purview of the law regulating hostilities during armed conflict, which had been the basis for their initial criticism of Hamas. When the UN-sponsored Goldstone Commission Report on the Gaza War was commissioned in 2009, it stated that it `` found no evidence that Palestinian combatants mingled with the civilian population with the intention of shielding themselves from attack '' though they deemed credible reports that Palestinian militants were `` not always dressed in a way that distinguished them from civilians ''. Hamas MP Fathi Hamed stated that `` For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel... the elderly excel at this... and so do the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children. '' Following the release of the Goldstone Report, the former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan Col. Richard Kemp was invited to testify at the UN Human Rights Council 12th Special Session that during Operation Cast Lead Israel encountered an `` enemy that deliberately positioned its military capability behind the human shield of the civilian population ''. Children as combatants See also : Children in the Israeli -- Palestinian conflict The Israeli government released a video compiled mostly from Arab news sources showing Palestinian children under the age of 15 going through military training and carrying and firing arms. The video 's narration explains that Hamas indoctrinates these child combatants and that Hamas operators send the children `` on missions from which they would not risk their own lives ''. According to the Israeli government, the children are used as spotters, to transport explosives and weapons, sent to play in areas to deter Israeli attacks and are sent unknowingly with explosive devices in their schoolbags to be blown up in the vicinity of Israelis. The United Nations defines the use of children for military purposes as a war crime and a form of slavery. See Military use of children. Although Hamas admits to sponsoring summer schools to train teenagers in handling weapons they condemn attacks by children. Following the deaths of three teenagers during a 2002 attack on Netzarim in central Gaza, Hamas banned attacks by children and `` called on the teachers and religious leaders to spread the message of restraint among young boys ''. Hamas 's use of child labor to build tunnels with which to attack Israel has also been criticized, with at least 160 children killed in the tunnels as of 2012. Political freedoms Hamas mural in the West Bank Human rights groups and Gazans have accused the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip of restricting freedom of the press and forcefully suppressing dissent. Both foreign and Palestinian journalists report harassment and other measures taken against them. In September 2007 the Gaza Interior Ministry disbanded the Gaza Strip branch of the pro-Fatah Union of Palestinian Journalists, a move criticized by Reporters without borders. In November of that year the Hamas government arrested a British journalist and for a time canceled all press cards in Gaza. On February 8, 2008, Hamas banned distribution of the pro-Fatah Al - Ayyam newspaper, and closed its offices in the Gaza Strip because it ran a caricature that mocked legislators loyal to Hamas,. The Gaza Strip Interior Ministry later issued an arrest warrant for the editor. More widely, in late August 2007 the group was accused in The Telegraph, a conservative British newspaper, of torturing, detaining, and firing on unarmed protesters who had objected to policies of the Hamas government. Also in late August, Palestinian health officials reported that the Hamas government had been shutting down Gaza clinics in retaliation for doctor strikes -- The Hamas government confirmed the `` punitive measure against doctors '' because, in its view, they had incited other doctors to suspend services and go out on strike. In September 2007 the Hamas government banned public prayers, after Fatah supporters began holding worship sessions that quickly escalated into raucous protests against Hamas rule. Government security forces beat several gathering supporters and journalists. In October 2008, the Hamas government announced it would release all political prisoners in custody in Gaza. Several hours after the announcement, 17 Fatah members were released. On August 2, 2012, the International Federation of Journalists ( IFJ ) accused Hamas of harassing elected officials belong to the Palestinian Journalists ' Syndicate ( PJS ) in Gaza. The IFJ said that journalists ' leaders in Gaza have faced a campaign of intimidation, as well as threats designed to force them to stop their union work. Some of these journalists are now facing charges of illegal activities and a travel ban, due to their refusal `` to give in to pressure ''. The IFJ said that these accusations are `` malicious '' and `` should be dropped immediately ''. The IFJ explained that the campaign against PJS members began in March 2012, after their election, and included a raid organized by Hamas supporters who took over the PJS offices in Gaza with the help of the security forces, and subsequently evicted the staff and elected officials. Other harassment includes the targeting of individuals who were bullied into stopping union work. The IFJ backed the PJS and called on Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to intervene to stop `` his officials ' unwarranted interference in journalists ' affairs ''. In November 2012, two Gazan journalists were prevented from leaving Gaza by Hamas. There were scheduled to participate in a conference in Cairo, Egypt. After being questioned by security forces, their passports were confiscated. In 2016 Reporters Without Borders condemned Hamas for censorship and for torturing journalists. Reporters Without Borders Secretary - General Christophe Deloire said `` As living conditions in the Gaza Strip are disastrous, Hamas wants to silence critics and does not hesitate to torture a journalist in order to control media coverage in its territory. '' Human Rights abuses In June 2011, the Independent Commission for Human Rights based in Ramallah published a report whose findings included that the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were subjected in 2010 to an `` almost systematic campaign '' of human rights abuses by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, as well as by Israeli authorities, with the security forces belonging to the PA and Hamas being responsible for torture, arrests and arbitrary detentions. In 2012, the Human Rights Watch presented a 43 page long list of human rights violation committed by Hamas. Among actions attributed to Hamas the HRW report mentions beatings with metal clubs and rubber hoses, hanging of alleged collaborationists with Israel, and torture of 102 individuals. According to the report, Hamas also tortured civil society activists and peaceful protesters. Reflecting on the captivity of Gilad Shalit, the HRW report described it as `` cruel and inhuman ''. The report also slams Hamas for harassment of people based on so called morality offenses and for media censorship. In a public statement Joe Stork, the deputy Middle East director of HRW claimed, `` after five years of Hamas rule in Gaza, its criminal justice system reeks of injustice, routinely violates detainees ' rights and grants impunity to abusive security services. '' Hamas responded by denying charges and describing them as `` politically motivated '' On May 26, 2015 Amnesty International released a report saying that Hamas carried out extrajudicial killings, abductions and arrests of Palestinians and used the Al - Shifa Hospital to detain, interrogate and torture suspects during the Israel -- Gaza conflict in 2014. It details the executions of at least 23 Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel and torture of dozens of others, many victims of torture were members of the rival Palestinian movement, Fatah. International support Hamas has always maintained leadership abroad. The movement is deliberately fragmented to ensure that Israel can not kill its top political and military leaders. Hamas used to be strongly allied with both Iran and Syria. Iran gave Hamas an estimated $13 -- 15 million in 2011 as well as access to long - range missiles. Hamas 's political bureau was once located in the Syrian capital of Damascus before the start of the Syrian civil war. Relations between Hamas, Iran, and Syria began to turn cold when Hamas refused to back the government of Syrian President Bashar al - Assad. Instead, Hamas backed the Sunni rebels fighting against Assad. As a result, Iran cut funding to Hamas, and their terror proxy Hezbollah ordered Hamas members out of Lebanon. Hamas was then forced out of Syria. Since then, Iran and Hezbollah have tried to mend fences with Hamas. Hamas contacted Jordan and Sudan to see if either would open up its borders to its political bureau. But both countries refused -- though they welcomed many Hamas members leaving Syria. In 2012 Hamas headquarters subsequently moved to Doha, Qatar. From 2012 to 2013, under the leadership of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi, Hamas had the support of Egypt. However, when Morsi was removed from Office, his replacement Abdul Fattah al - Sisi outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood and destroyed the tunnels Hamas built into Egypt. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are likewise hostile to Hamas. Like Egypt, they designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization and Hamas was viewed as its Palestinian equivalent. Qatar and Turkey According to Middle East experts, now Hamas has two firm allies : Qatar and Turkey. Both give Hamas public and financial assistance estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Shashank Joshi, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, says that `` Qatar also hosts Hamas 's political bureau which includes Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. '' Meshaal also visits Turkey frequently to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan has dedicated himself to breaking Hamas out of its political and economic seclusion. Last year on U.S. television Erdogan said, `` I do n't see Hamas as a terror organization. Hamas is a political party. '' In 2007, Qatar was, with Turkey, the only country to back Hamas after the group ousted the Palestinian Authority out of the Gaza Strip. The relationship between Hamas and Qatar strengthened in 2008 and 2009 when Khaled Meshaal was invited to attend the Doha Summit where he was seated next to the then Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al - Thani, who pledged $250 million to repair the damage caused by the Israel in the Israeli war on Gaza. These events caused Qatar to become the main player in the `` Palestinian issue ''. Qatar called Gaza 's blockade unjust and immoral, which prompted the Hamas government in Gaza, including former Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, to thank Qatar for their `` unconditional '' support. Qatar then began regularly handing out political, material, humanitarian and charitable support for Hamas. In 2012, Qatar 's former Emir, Hamad bin Khalifa al - Thani, became the first head of state to visit Gaza under Hamas rule. He pledged to raise $400 million for reconstruction. Some have argued that the money Qatar gives to reconstruct Palestine is an excuse to pour even more money into Hamas. Qatar 's reason for funding Hamas, which is shared by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is allegedly that Islamist groups are growing and will eventually play a role in the region ; thus it is important for Qatar ( and Turkey ) to maintain ties. During the Arab Spring, for example, Qatar backed the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian Islamist group whose offshoot is Hamas. Other sources say that advocating for Hamas is politically beneficial to Turkey and Qatar because the Palestinian cause draws popular support amongst their citizens at home. Some began to label Qatar a terrorist haven in part because it is harboring Hamas leader Meshaal. They also harbor Husam Badran, former leader of Hamas 's military wing in the northern West Bank. Husam Badran, current media spokesman for Hamas, was the instigator of several of the deadliest suicide bombings of the second intifada, including the Dolphinarium discotheque bombing in Tel Aviv, which killed 21 people. Turkey has also been criticized for housing terrorists including Saleh al - Arouri, the senior Hamas officer, known for his ability to mastermind attacks from abroad. Al - Arouri is alleged to have orchestrated the June 2014 abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers and to have started the 50 - day war between Israel and Palestine, and now lives in Turkey. Speaking in reference to Qatar 's support for Hamas, during a 2015 visit to Palestine, Qatari official Mohammad al - Emadi, said Qatar is using the money not to help Hamas but rather the Palestinian people as a whole. He acknowledges however that giving to the Palestinian people means using Hamas as the local contact. Emadi said, `` You have to support them. You do n't like them, do n't like them. But they control the country, you know. '' Some argue that Hamas 's relations with Qatar are putting Hamas in an awkward position because Qatar has become part of the regional Arab problem. But Hamas claims that having contacts with various Arab countries establishes positive relations which will encourage Arab countries to do their duty toward the Palestinians and support their cause by influencing public opinion in the Arab world. In March 2015, Hamas has announced its support of the Saudi Arabian - led military intervention in Yemen against the Shia Houthis and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. U.S. - based support Several U.S. organizations were either shut down or held liable for financing Hamas in early 2001, groups that have origins from the mid-1990s : the Holy Land Foundation ( HLF ), Islamic Association for Palestine ( IAP ), and Kind Hearts. The U.S. Treasury Department specially designated the HLF in 2001 for terror ties : `` from 1995 to 2001 the HLF transferred `` approximately $12.4 million outside of the United States with the intent to contribute funds, goods, and services to Hamas. '' According to the Treasury Department, Khaled Meshal identified one of HLF 's officers, Mohammed El - Mezain as `` the Hamas leader for the U.S. '' In 2003, IAP was found liable for financially supporting Hamas, and in 2006, Kind Hearts had their assets frozen for supporting Hamas. In 2016, it was reported that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement ( BDS ) against Israel includes a web of Hamas supporters from the Illinois - based organization American Muslims for Palestine ( AMP ). See also Book : Islamic terrorism Book : Islamic terrorist groups Palestine portal Terrorism portal Islam portal 25th anniversary of Hamas Hamastan Human rights in the Palestinian National Authority List of Palestinian suicide attacks List of political parties in the Palestinian National Authority References Jump up ^ Matthew Levitt, Hamas : Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, Yale University Press, 2007 p. 44. Jump up ^ Tristan Dunning, Hamas, Jihad and Popular Legitimacy : Reinterpreting Resistance in Palestine, Routledge 2016 p. 270. Jump up ^ Ekaterina Stepanova, `` Terrorism in Asymmetrical Conflict : Ideological and Structural Aspects '', Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Oxford University Press 2008, p. 113. Jump up ^ Sujata Ashwarya Cheema, `` Hamas and Politics in Palestine : Impact on Peace - Building '', in Rajendra Madhukar Abhyankar ( ed. ), West Asia and the Region : Defining India 's Role, Academic Foundation 2008 pp. 465, 463 -- 491 : `` Hamas considers Palestine the main front of jihad and viewed the uprising as an Islamic way of fighting the Occupation. The leaders of the organization argued that Islam gave the Palestinian people the power to confront Israel and described the Intifada as the return of the masses to Islam. Since its inception, Hamas has tried to reconcile nationalism and Islam... Hamas claims to speak as a nationalist movement but with an Islamic - nationalist rather than a secular nationalist agenda. '' Jump up ^ Meir Litvak, `` Religious and Nationalist Fanaticism : The Case of Hamas '', in Matthew Hughes & Gaynor Johnson ( eds. ), Fanaticism and Conflict in the Modern Age, Frank Cass, London and New York, 2004, pp. 156 -- 157 : `` Hamas is primarily a religious movement whose nationalist world view is shaped by its religious ideology. '' Jump up ^ Anthony H. Cordesman. Peace and War : The Arab -- Israeli Military Balance Enters the 21st Century. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2002. p. 243 : `` Hamas is a radical Islamic fundamentalist organization that has stated that its highest priority is a Jihad ( holy war ) for the liberation of Palestine. '' Jump up ^ Meir Litvak. `` Hamas : Palestinian Identity, Islam, and National Sovereignty, '' in Asher Susser ( ed. ) Challenges to the Cohesion of the Arabic State. Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. Tel Aviv University. 2008. p. 153 : ' One of the secrets behind the success of Hamas is that it is an Islamic and national movement at one and the same time, ' Jump up ^ Richard Davis. Hamas, Popular Support and War in the Middle East : Insurgency in the Holy Land Routledge. 2016. pp. 67 -- 69. Jump up ^ Tariq Mukhimer. Hamas Rule in Gaza : Human Rights Under Constraint. Palgrave Macmillan. 2012. pp. vii, 57. Jump up ^ `` Gaza ceasefire : Israel and Palestinians agree to halt weeks of fighting ''. TheGuardian. Retrieved 10 November 2014. Jump up ^ `` EU keeps Hamas on terror list, despite court ruling ''. Euractiv. 27 March 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2015. Jump up ^ https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/65462.pdf Jump up ^ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2012/11/21/9-questions-about-israel-gaza-you-were-too-embarrassed-to-ask/ Jump up ^ Fatah agrees to celebrate Hamas anniversary in Gaza. JTA, 7 December 2012. Jump up ^ Amal Jamal. The Palestinian National Movement : Politics of Contention, 1967 -- 2005. Indiana University Press. 2005. p. 197. n. 21. Dates differ, between December 1987 -- January 1988, and August 1988. ^ Jump up to : Andrew Higgins, ' How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas ', The Wall Street Journal 24 January 2009. ^ Jump up to : This article incorporates public domain material from the Congressional Research Service document `` Hamas : The Organizations, Goals and Tactics of a Militant Palestinian Organization ''. Jump up ^ Helena Lindholm Schulz The Reconstruction of Palestinian Nationalism : Between Revolution and Statehood, Manchester University Press, 1999 p. 76 Jump up ^ Hamas ( Islamic Resistance Movement ), http://www.ict.org.il Jump up ^ `` Israeli Official Says Hamas Has Made Abbas Irrelevant '' The New York Times, February 27, 2006 Jump up ^ Efraim Inbar. Israel 's National Security : Issues and Challenges Since the Yom Kippur War. Routledge, Dec 21, 2007. p. 193 Jump up ^ `` Hamas ''. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved August 2, 2011. Jump up ^ Solomon, Jay ( July 31, 2009 ). `` Hamas Chief Outlines Terms for Talks on Arab - Israeli Peace ''. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 2, 2011. Jump up ^ Amer, Adnan Abu ( May 5, 2014 ). `` Hamas ' Abu Marzouk says recognizing Israel a ' red line ' ''. Al - Monitor. Jump up ^ Tostevin, Matthew ( 2004 - 03 - 06 ). `` eircom net Ireland - International / Irish news headlines from leading Irish newspapers ''. Internet Archive. Archived from the original on March 6, 2004. Retrieved 2016 - 03 - 17. Jump up ^ `` Report : Hamas proposes 10 - year cease - fire in return for conditions being met ''. The Jerusalem Post JPost.com. 2014 - 07 - 16. Retrieved 2016 - 03 - 17. Jump up ^ Fletcher, Martin ( 2014 - 07 - 16 ). `` How Realistic Are Hamas ' Cease - Fire Terms ? ''. NBC News. Retrieved 2016 - 03 - 17. ^ Jump up to : Stephen E. Atkins, Encyclopedia of Modern Worldwide Extremists and Extremist Groups, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004 : ' This ceasefire ended when Israel started targeting Hamas leaders for assassination in July 2003. Hamas retaliated with a suicide bombing in Israel on August 19, 2003, that killed 20 people, including 6 children. Since then Israelis have mounted an assassination campaign against the senior leadership of Hamas that has killed 13 Hamas members, including Ismail Abu Shanab, one of the most moderate leaders of Hamas... After each of these assassinations, Hamas has sent a suicide bomber into Israel in retaliation. ' Jump up ^ al - Mughrabi, Nidal ; Ori Lewis ( April 19, 2008 ). `` Hamas bomber killed in attack at Gaza - Israel border ''. Reuters. Retrieved April 28, 2011. Jump up ^ Jamie Chosak ; Julie Sawyer ( October 19, 2005 ). `` Hamas 's Tactics : Lessons from Recent Attacks ''. Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Retrieved August 1, 2011. Jump up ^ Clauset, A. ; Heger, L. ; Young, M. ; Gleditsch, K.S. ( 2010 ). `` The strategic calculus of terrorism : Substitution and competition in the Israel -- Palestine conflict ''. Cooperation and Conflict. 45 ( 1 ) : 6 -- 33. ISSN 0010 - 8367. doi : 10.1177 / 0010836709347113. Jump up ^ Lankford, Adam ( 2014 ). `` Précis of The Myth of Martyrdom : What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Rampage Shooters, and Other Self - Destructive Killers ''. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 37 ( 04 ) : 351 -- 362. ISSN 0140 - 525X. doi : 10.1017 / S0140525X13001581. Jump up ^ Mark Perry, ' Gaza 's Bottle Rockets ', in Gideon Rose ( ed ) Clueless in Gaza, Foreign Affairs, 2014 p. 110 : ' most of Hamas ' arsenal is comprised of homemade rockets that are decidedly incapable of inflicting mass civilian casualties, flattening apartment blocks, or causing conflagrations that consume entire cities. `` Hamas ' rockets can kill people and they have, '' a counter-intelligence veteran of the U.S., CIA who spent his career monitoring Israeli and Palestinian military capabilities, told me recently, `` but compared to what the Israelis are using, the Palestinians are firing bottle rockets. '' Jump up ^ The Growing Reach of Hamas 's Rockets. The New York Times. July 2014 Jump up ^ `` Hamas Rockets from Gaza Target Haifa, Reach Far into Northern Israel ''. Washington Free Beacon. Retrieved July 17, 2015. Jump up ^ `` Gaza : Palestinian Rockets Unlawfully Targeted Israeli Civilians ''. hrw.org/news/. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 11 July 2014. Jump up ^ Israel / PA : Suicide Bombers Commit Crimes Against Humanity. Human Rights Watch Jump up ^ Pollock, David. `` The Surprising Opinions of Palestinians. '' The Washington Institute. 7 June 2017. 14 June 2017. ^ Jump up to : `` Who are Hamas ? ''. London : BBC News. January 26, 2006. Jump up ^ Erlanger, Steven ( February 18, 2006 ). `` Hamas Leader Faults Israeli Sanction Plan ''. The New York Times. Retrieved April 22, 2010. Jump up ^ `` We 're sorry, that page ca n't be found. '' ( PDF ). ^ Jump up to : Hamas The New York Times, June 18, 2010 `` The pact did not succeed in restoring the flow of aid and did not last. Clashes between the two groups steadily escalated until gunmen loyal to Hamas took control of Gaza in June, ousting the remnants of Fatah. '' Backgrounder : Hamas. Council of Foreign Relations. August 27, 2009, `` In the summer of 2007, Hamas tensions with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a Fatah man, came to a head and Hamas routed Fatah supporters, killing many and sending others fleeing to the West Bank. The result was a de facto geographic division of Palestinian - held territory, with Hamas holding sway in Gaza and Fatah maintaining the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank town of Ramallah. '' Jump up ^ `` Gaza may face economic disaster if blockade continues ''. USA Today. Associated Press. March 29, 2009. Retrieved October 9, 2013. Jump up ^ `` Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah sign reconciliation deal '' The Guardian ( UK ), May 4, 2011 ^ Jump up to : Keinon, Herb. `` Politics : Fatah - Hamas unity talks breed Likud harmony ''. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 21 June 2014. Jump up ^ Martha Crenshaw, John Pimlott. International Encyclopedia of Terrorism. Routledge. 2015. p. 415. ^ Jump up to : Jennifer Jefferis. Hamas : Terrorism, Governance, and Its Future in Middle East Politics. ABC - CLIO. 2016. p. 119. Jump up ^ `` The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) ''. MidEast Web. August 18, 1988. Jump up ^ `` Hamas Islamic Resistance ''. Hamas.ps. Jump up ^ Al - Qassam Brigades -- about us Archived November 11, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ ( 1 ) Jump up ^ Levitt 2006 pp. 10 -- 11. Jump up ^ Levitt, 2006 pp. 11 -- 12. Jump up ^ Sara Roy, Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza : Engaging the Islamist Social Sector, Princeton University Press, Rev. ed. 2013 p. 30. Jump up ^ CNN, Andrew Carey and Joe Sterling. `` Ismail Haniya elected new Hamas leader ''. CNN. Jump up ^ Davis 2016 pp. 44 -- 45. Jump up ^ A. Hovdenak, ' Hamas in Transition : The Failure of Sanctions, ' in Michelle Pace, Peter Seeberg ( eds. ), The European Union 's Democratization Agenda in the Mediterranean, Routledge, 2013 pp. 50 -- 79 p. 64. Jump up ^ Peter Mandaville, Islam and Politics, Routledge, 2014 Rev. ed, p. 282. ^ Jump up to : Benedetta Berti, Armed Political Organizations : From Conflict to Integration, JHU Press, 2013 p. 88. Jump up ^ Mohammed Ayoob, Will the Middle East Implode ?, John Wiley & Sons, 2014 p. 47. Jump up ^ Tristan Dunning, p. 136. Jump up ^ Levitt, pp. 16 -- 23. Jump up ^ Phillips p. 78 Jump up ^ Lihi Ben Shitrit, Righteous Transgressions : Women 's Activism on the Israeli and Palestinian Religious Right, Princeton University Press, 2015 p. 71. ^ Jump up to : David L. Phillips, From Bullets to Ballots : Violent Muslim Movements in Transition, Transaction Publishers, 2011 p. 75. Jump up ^ Davis, pp. 47ff. Jump up ^ Levitt, p. 23 : ' In a 1995 lecture, Sheikh Jamil Hamami, a party to the foundation of Hamas and a senior member of its West Bank leadership, expounded the importance of Hamas ' dawa infrastructure as the soil from which militancy would flower. ' Jump up ^ Levitt, pp. 25 -- 26. Jump up ^ Mohsen Saleh, The Palestinian Strategic Report 2006, Al Manhal, 2007 p. 198. Jump up ^ James J.F. Forrest, ' Conclusion ', in James Dingley, Combating Terrorism in Northern Ireland, Routledge, 2008 pp. 280 -- 300 p. 290. Jump up ^ Phillips p. 81. Jump up ^ Levitt, pp. 122 -- 123. Jump up ^ Davis, p. 48. Jump up ^ Davis, pp. 48 -- 49. Jump up ^ Aoibhín de Búrca, Preventing Political Violence Against Civilians : Nationalist Militant Conflict in Northern Ireland, Israel And Palestine, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014 pp. 100 -- 102. Jump up ^ Mohammad Najib and Roland Friedrich ' Non-Statutory Armed Groups and Security Sector Governance, ' in Roland Friedrich, Arnold Luethold ( eds. ), Entry - points to Palestinian Security Sector Reform, DCAF, 2007 pp. 101 -- 127 p. 103. This date is based on a Hamas operation that assassinated the rabbi of the Israeli settlement of Kfar Darom inside the Gaza Strip. Jump up ^ Davis, pp. 110 -- 111. ^ Jump up to : Mathieu Guidère, Historical Dictionary of Islamic Fundamentalism, Scarecrow Press, 2012 p. 173. Jump up ^ Najib p. 103. Jump up ^ Alincée Van Engeland, ' Hamas, ' in Jeffrey Ian Ross ( ed. ) Religion and Violence : An Encyclopedia of Faith and Conflict from Antiquity to the Present, Routledge 2015 pp. 319 -- 323 : p. 319. Jump up ^ Davis, p. 111. Jump up ^ Mohannad Sabry, Sinai : Egypt 's Linchpin, Gaza 's Lifeline, Israel 's Nightmare, British Academic Press, 2015, p. 65. Jump up ^ Najib p. 107 Jump up ^ Sabry p. 67. Jump up ^ Sabry, p. 73. Jump up ^ Jefferis, p. 119. ^ Jump up to : Najib p. 107. Jump up ^ Shitrit, p. 71. ^ Jump up to : Najib p. 106. Jump up ^ Najib p. 105. Jump up ^ Najib pp. 105 -- 106. ^ Jump up to : Najib p. 106 Jump up ^ R. Kim Cragin, ' Learning to Survive : The Case of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) ', in James JF Forrest ( ed. ), Teaching Terror : Strategic and Tactical Learning in the Terrorist World, Rowman & Littlefield, 2006 pp. 189 -- 204 p. 196. Jump up ^ Erlich Reese, Robert Baer, Conversations with Terrorists : Middle East Leaders on Politics, Violence, and Empire, Routledge, 2016 p. 28. Jump up ^ Dunning, p. 34. ^ Jump up to : Harry Raymond Hueston, Paul G. Pierpaoli Jr., Sherifa Zahar, ' Hamas ' in Priscilla Roberts ( ed. ) Arab - Israeli Conflict : The Essential Reference Guide, ABC - CLIO, 2014 pp. 676 -- 71 p. 67. ^ Jump up to : Jeroen Gunning, ' Hamas : Harakat al - Muqamama al - Islamiyya, ' in Marianne Heiberg, Brendan O'Leary, John Tirman ( eds. ), Terror, Insurgency, and the State : Ending Protracted Conflicts, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007 pp. 123 -- 155 p. 134. Jump up ^ Najib pp. 107 - 108 - Jump up ^ Joyce Davis https://books.google.com/books?id=GxwbNesHJBkC&pg=PA100 Martyrs : Innocence, Vengeance, and Despair in the Middle East, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004 p. 100. ^ Jump up to : Julie C. Herrick, ' Non-State Actors : A Comparative Analysis of Change and Development Within Hamas and Hezbollah, ' in Bahgat Korany ( ed. ), The Changing Middle East : A New Look at Regional Dynamics, American University in Cairo Press, 2010 pp. 167 -- 195, p. 179. Jump up ^ Mandaville, p. 282. Jump up ^ Matthew Levitt, Negotiating Under Fire : Preserving Peace Talks in the Face of Terror Attacks, Rowman & Littlefield 2008 pp. 89f. Jump up ^ John L. Esposito, Islam and Violence, Syracuse University Press 1998 p. 231. Jump up ^ Ilana Kass & Bard E. O'Neill, The Deadly Embrace : The Impact of Israeli and Palestinian Rejectionism on the Peace Process, National Institute for Public Policy / University Press of America 1997, p. 267. Jump up ^ Matthew Levitt p. 34. Jump up ^ Levitt p. 148. ^ Jump up to : Jodi Vittori, Terrorist Financing and Resourcing, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011 pp. 72 -- 74, p. 193 notes 50, 51. Jump up ^ Levitt, pp. 143 -- 144. Jump up ^ Colin P. Clarke, Terrorism, Inc. : The Financing of Terrorism, Insurgency, and Irregular Warfare : The Financing of Terrorism, Insurgency, and Irregular Warfare, ABC - CLIO, 2015 p. 97. Jump up ^ Interpal and Development and the Al - Aqsa Charitable Foundation Fund. pp. 146, 154 -- 159. ^ Jump up to : Marsh E. Burfeindt, ' Rapprochement with Iran ', in Thomas A. Johnson ( ed. ), Power, National Security, and Transformational Global Events : Challenges Confronting America, China, and Iran. CRC Press. 2012. pp. 185 -- 235 p. 198. Jump up ^ Levitt p. 173. Jump up ^ Joshua L. Gleis, Benedetta Berti, Hezbollah and Hamas : A Comparative Study, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012 p. 156. Jump up ^ Robert Mason, Foreign Policy in Iran and Saudi Arabia : Economics and Diplomacy in the Middle East, I.B. Tauris, 2015 pp. 48 -- 49 Jump up ^ Levitt, pp. 172 -- 174. Jump up ^ Lawrence Rubin, Islam in the Balance : Ideational Threats in Arab Politics. Stanford University Press, 2014 p. 104 Jump up ^ Jalil Roshandel, Alethia H. Cook, The United States and Iran : Policy Challenges and Opportunities, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. p. 104. Jump up ^ Mark P. Sullivan, ' Latin America : Terrorism Issues '. Congressional Research Service. 14 July 2009. p. 4. Jump up ^ Davis, p. 173. Jump up ^ Ziyād Abū ʻAmr, Islamic Fundamentalism in the West Bank and Gaza : Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Jihad, Indiana University Press, 1994 p. 16. Jump up ^ Rashmi Singh, Hamas and Suicide Terrorism : Multi-causal and Multi-level Approaches, Routledge, 2013 p. 153 n. 70. Jump up ^ Levitt, p. 24 p. 24 : `` Scholars and historians on both sides... agree that from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s the ( Muslim ) Brotherhood benefited from the Israeli government 's support of non-violent Islamist Palestinian factions, believing these groups would function as a useful counterweight to the secular nationalist Palestinian groups... '' Jump up ^ Philip Mattar ( ed., ) Encyclopedia of the Palestinians, Infobase Publishing, 2005 p. 195 : ' the Brotherhood was even quietly assisted by Israel I authorities in the hopes that it could serve as an alternative to the PLO ', Jump up ^ Riaz Hassan, Life as a Weapon : The Global Rise of Suicide Bombings, Routledge, Revised ed. 2014 p. 80 - Jump up ^ Amr p. 31. Ahmad Yassin stated ' the PLO is secularist. It can not be accepted as a representative unless it becomes islamic ' p. 31 ; ' Politically speaking, Islamic fundamentalists were sometimes regarded as useful to Israel because they had their conflicts with the secular supporters of the PLO... the Israeli military governor of the Gaza Strip, Brigadier General Yitzhak Segev, once told me how he had financed the Islamic movement as a counterweight to the PLO and the Communists... In 1980, when fundamentalist protesters set fire to the office of the Red Crescent Society in Gaza, headed by Dr Haidar Abdel - Shafi, a Communist and PLO supporter, the Israeli army did nothing, intervening only when the mob marched to his home and seemed to threaten him personally '. p. 35 Jump up ^ Helena Lindholm Schulz The Reconstruction of Palestinian Nationalism : Between Revolution and Statehood, Manchester University Press, 1999 p. 76 ^ Jump up to : Laura Neack, The New Foreign Policy : Power Seeking in a Globalized Era, Rowman & Littlefield 2008 p. 101. Jump up ^ Amal Jamal, The Palestinian National Movement : Politics of Contention, 1967 -- 2005, Indiana University Press, 2005 p. 197 n. 21. Dates differ, between December 1987 -- January 1988, and August 1988 Jump up ^ The World Almanac of Islamism : 2014, American Foreign Policy Council / Rowman & Littlefield, 2014 ( Hamas pp. 272 -- 278 ). Jump up ^ Joshua L. Gleis, Benedetta Berti, Hezbollah and Hamas : A Comparative Study, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012 p. 119 : ' In truth, the creation of Hamas as a separate entity from the Muslim Brotherhood was done precisely to prevent Israeli authorities from targeting the organizations ' greater activities, in the hopes that it would leave them relatively immune. Moreover, Hamas was created essentially because the Islamicists connected to the Muslim Brotherhood feared that without their direct participation in the first Intifada, they would lose supporters to both the PIJ and the PLO, the latter of which was anxious to reassert itself in the Palestinian territories after being marginalized following its expulsion from Lebanon. As authors Mishal and Saela, explain, `` The Mujamma 's decision to adopt a ' jihad now ' policy against ' enemies of Allah ' ( through the creation of Hamas ) was thus largely a matter of survival. ' Jump up ^ `` Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya Reaffirms Hamas ' Commitment to Armed Resistance and Says : We Will Liberate Palestine in Its Entirety, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River ''. Memri TV. Retrieved 22 July 2014. Jump up ^ Ronni Shaked, ' Ethos of Conflict of the Palestinian Society, ' in Keren Sharvit, Eran Halperin ( eds. ), A Social Psychology Perspective on The Israeli - Palestinian Conflict : Celebrating the Legacy of Daniel Bar - Tal, Springer, 2016 Volume 2 pp. 133 -- 149 p. 142. Jump up ^ According to Khaled Hroub, Hamas : A Beginner 's Guide, Pluto Press 2006 p. 33 : ' The Charter was written in early 1988 by one individual and was made public without appropriate general Hamas consultation, revision or consensus, to the regret of Hamas 's leaders in later years. The author of the Charter was one of the ' old guard ' of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gaza Strip, completely cut off from the outside world. All kinds of confusions and conflations between Judaism and Zionism found their way into the Charter, to the disservice of Hamas ever since, as this document has managed to brand it with charges of ' anti-Semitism ' and a naïve world - view ' Hamas leaders and spokespeople have rarely referred to the Charter or quoted from it, evidence that it has come to be seen as a burden rather than an intellectual platform that embraces the movement 's principles. ' Jump up ^ Khaled Hroub, ' A `` New Hamas '' through its new documents ', Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. 35, No. 4, Summer 2006, Issue 140, pp. 6 -- 28, p. 6, cited Michael Schulz, ' Hamas Between Sharia Rule and Demo - Islam, ' in Ashok Swain, Ramses Amer, Joakim Öjendal ( eds. ), Globalization and Challenges to Building Peace, pp. 195 -- 2011 : ' Hamas continues to be characterized with reference to its 1988 charter drawn up less than a year after the movement was established in direct response to the outbreak of the third intifada and when its raison d'être was armed resistance to the occupation. Yet when its election and post-election documents are compared to the charter, it becomes clear that what is being promoted is a profondly different organization ' Jump up ^ ' The non-Zionist Jew is one who belongs to the Jewish culture, whether as a believer in the Jewish faith or simply by accident of birth, but... ( who ) takes no part in aggressive actions against our land and our nation... Hamas will not adopt a hostile position in practice against anyone because of his ideas or his creed but will adopt such a position if those ideas and creed are translated into hostile or damaging actions against our people. ' ( 1990 ) Khaled Hroub, p. 34. Jump up ^ Giandomenico Picco, Gabrielle Rifkind, The Fog of Peace, I.B. Tauris, 2014 pp. 47 -- 48 Jump up ^ Gabriel Weimann, Terror on the Internet : The New Arena, the New Challenges, US Institute of Peace Press, 2006 p. 82. Jump up ^ Jim Zanotti, Hamas : Background and Issues for Congress, DIANE Publishing, 2011 p. 15. Jump up ^ Zanotti, p. 15. Jump up ^ Roberts p. 68 : ' The Charter condemns world Zionism and the efforts to isolate Palestine, defines the mission of the organization, and locates that mission within Palestinian, Arab and Islamic elements. It does not condemn the West or non-Muslims, but does condemn aggression against the Palestinian people, arguing for a defensive jihad. It also calls for fraternal relations with the other Palestinian nationalist groups '. ^ Jump up to : `` Hamas Covenant 1988 : The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement ''. The Avalon Project : Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy. Yale Law School. August 18, 1988. Retrieved February 15, 2009. Jump up ^ Shaul Mishal, Avraham Sela, The Palestinian Hamas : vision, violence, and coexistence Columbia University Press, 2006 p. 178. Jump up ^ Mark A. Tessler A History of the Israeli - Palestinian Conflict, Indiana University Press, 1994 pp. 546,696 Jump up ^ Peter Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism, Melbourne University Press 2012 p. 219 n. 53. Jump up ^ Ayala H. Emmett, Our Sisters ' Promised Land : Women, Politics, and Israeli - Palestinian Coexistence, University of Michigan Press, 2003 pp. 100 -- 102. Jump up ^ Glenn Frankel, Beyond the Promised Land : Jews and Arabs on the Hard Road to a New Israel, Simon and Schuster, 1996 p. 389 - 391, cites Binjamin Netanyahu as declaring : ' You say the Bible is not a property deed. But I say the opposite - the Bible is our mandate, the Bible is our deed '. Yitzhak Rabin at the time charged that `` Bibi Netyanyahu is a Hamas collaborator... Hamas and Likud have the same political goal. ' Jump up ^ David Whitten Smith, Elizabeth Geraldine Burr, Understanding World Religions : A Road Map for Justice and Peace, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014 2nd. ed. pp. 250 -- 1 for a comparison of similarities regarding ownership of the land in the Likud and Hamas platforms. Jump up ^ Louise Fawcett, International Relations of the Middle East, Oxford University Press 2013 p. 49 : ' The Hamas platform calls for full Muslim - Palestinian control of the Mediterranean to the Jordan River -- the mirror image of Likud 's platform for Jewish control of the same land. ' Jump up ^ Padraig O'Malley The Two - State Delusion : Israel and Palestine -- A Tale of Two Narratives, Penguin Books 2015 p. 26 : ' Israel incessantly invokes provisions of Hamas 's charter that call for the elimination of Jews and the destruction of Israel, and its refusal to recognize the state of Israel... Hamas also calls attention to the clauses in the Likud charter that explicitly denounce a two - state solution. A double standard, says Hamas. ' Jump up ^ Noam Chomsky, in Elliot N. Dorff, Danya Ruttenberg, Louis E Newman ( eds. ), Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices : War and National Security, Jewish Publication Society, 2010 pp. 26 -- 7 Jump up ^ Dunning, Tristan ( 20 November 2014 ), Israel 's policy on statehood merits the same scrutiny as Hamas gets Jump up ^ David Whitten, Smith, Elizabeth Geraldine Burr, Understanding World Religions : A Road Map for Justice and Peace, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014 p. 250 Jump up ^ Peter Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism, Melbourne University Press 2012 p. 231 : ' If Israel withdraws to the borders of 1967, it does n't mean that it gives us back all the land of the Palestinians. But we do consider this as an acceptable solution to have a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967 '. Jump up ^ Dr. Lorenzo Kamel, ' Why do Palestinians in Gaza support Hamas ?, ' Haaretz 5 August 2014 Jump up ^ Davis, p. 41 Jump up ^ Matthew Duss, ' Remember Gaza ?, ' Tablet Magazine 8 May 2015. Jump up ^ Davis, p. 41. Jump up ^ Wendy Pearlman, Violence, Nonviolence, and the Palestinian National Movement, Cambridge University Press, 2011 p. 137. Jump up ^ Seth Ackerman ( September -- October 2006 ). `` Nixed Signals ''. Extra !. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. Retrieved March 18, 2012. Jump up ^ Barak Ravid ( August 14, 2008 ). `` In 2006 letter to Bush, Haniyeh offered compromise with Israel ''. Haaretz. Retrieved March 18, 2012. Jump up ^ Al Jazeera, `` Hamas ready to accept 1967 borders ''. Apr 22, 2008. Jump up ^ Amira Hass ( November 9, 2008 ). `` Hamas willing to accept Palestinian state with 1967 borders ''. Haaretz. Retrieved April 16, 2014. Jump up ^ Yoav Segev ( September 22, 2009 ). `` Haniyeh to UN chief : Hamas accepts Palestinian state in ' 67 borders ''. Haaretz. Retrieved February 25, 2012. Jump up ^ `` Hamas Vows to Honor Palestinian Referendum on Peace with Israel : Islamist Leader Ismail Haniyeh Says He Would Accept a Deal with Israel Based on 1967 Borders and Denies that Gaza has Become a Stronghold for Al - Qaida ''. Haaretz. Reuters. December 1, 2010. Retrieved February 25, 2012. Jump up ^ Ilan Ben Zion ( March 14, 2012 ). `` The eye of the Islamic Jihad storm ''. The Times of Israel. Retrieved March 29, 2012. Jump up ^ Marc Tracy ( March 12, 2012 ). `` Terrorist Killing Prompts Gaza Rocket Exchange ''. Tablet Magazine. Retrieved March 31, 2012. Jump up ^ Israel rejects Gaza ceasefire The Guardian ( UK ), April 25, 2008 ^ Jump up to : Erlanger, Steven ( April 1, 2008 ). `` In Gaza, Hamas 's Insults to Jews Complicate Peace ''. The New York Times. Retrieved August 2, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Nizar Rayyan of Hamas on God 's Hatred of Jews '', The Atlantic, ( January 2, 2009 ). ^ Jump up to : Hamas Fights Over Gaza 's Islamist Identity The New York Times, September 5, 2009 Jump up ^ Martyrdom, Not Suicide : The Legality of Hamas ' Bombings in the Mid-1990s in Modern Islamic Jurisprudence By M.A. Philipp Holtmann, p. 13 Jump up ^ For suicide attacks, sources include : `` To the outside world, Hamas is best - known -- infamous -- for its reliance on suicide bombers. '' ( Palestinian territories : Inside Hamas, PBS Frontline : World, May 9, 2006 ) ``... the militant organization, best known abroad for its attacks against Israeli civilians... '' ( Musharbash, Yassin. `` Could Victory be Undoing of Hamas '', Der Spiegel, January 27, 2006 ) ``... it was best known in Israel and abroad for the suicide attacks it used... '' ( `` After the Hamas earthquake '', The Guardian, January 27, 2006 ). ^ Jump up to : Martyrdom, Not Suicide : The Legality of Hamas ' Bombings in the Mid-1990s in Modern Islamic Jurisprudence By M.A. Philipp Holtmann, p. 16 Jump up ^ `` For Arabs in Israel, a house is not a home '' by Edward Platt, New Statesman, August 30, 2010 Jump up ^ Inside Hamas : The Untold Story of Militants, Martyrs and Spies By Zaki Chehab, p. 115 Jump up ^ Chronology for Palestinians in Israel Archived August 12, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. The UN Refugee Agency, 2004 ^ Jump up to : The Palestinian People : A History By Baruch Kimmerling & Joel S. Migdal, pp. 372 -- 373 Jump up ^ Karsh, Efraim. Arafat 's War : The Man and His Battle for Israeli Conquest. New York : Grove Press, 2003. p. 216. Jump up ^ Katz, Samuel. The Hunt for the Engineer. Lyons Press, 2002. ISBN 1 - 58574 - 749 - 1, p. 256 ^ Jump up to : `` Jordan curbs Hamas '', The Guardian, November 22, 1999 ^ Jump up to : `` Hamas Leader Khaled Mashaal '' Time, January 4, 2009 ^ Jump up to : Jordan : Whether Hamas persecute, kidnap, torture or abuse with impunity Jordanian citizens who disagree with its methods, policies and ideology Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, October 25, 2000, JOR35666. E, accessed September 28, 2010 Jump up ^ Hamas : Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, by Matthew Levitt. Yale University Press, 2007. p. 45 Jump up ^ B'Tselem -- Statistics -- Fatalities, B'Tselem. Jump up ^ `` Human Capital and the Productivity of Suicide Bombers '' Archived January 27, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. Journal of Economic Perspectives Volume 21, Number 3, Summer 2007. Pages 223 -- 238 Jump up ^ `` The Second Intifada : Background and Causes of the Israeli - Palestinian Conflict '' Jeremy Pressman, Fall 2003 ( pdf ) ^ Jump up to : Running out of time Archived January 20, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Al - Ahram Weekly January 29 -- February 4, 2004 ^ Jump up to : `` Israel rejects ' insincere ' Hamas offer of 10 - year truce '' The Independent January 27, 2004 Jump up ^ Fury as Gaza buries Hamas leader BBC News April 19, 2004 Jump up ^ Hamas chief killed in air strike BBC News March 22, 2004 Jump up ^ Price, Matthew ( May 13, 2005 ). `` Hamas success in Fatah heartland ''. BBC News. Retrieved January 5, 2010. Jump up ^ McGreal, Chris ( January 12, 2006 ). `` Hamas drops call for destruction of Israel from manifesto ''. The Guardian. London. Retrieved May 4, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Hamas : Ceasefire for return to 1967 border ''. Ynetnews. January 30, 2006. ^ Jump up to : Hamas Routs Ruling Faction, Casting Pall on Peace Process, The New York Times, January 27, 2006 Jump up ^ Kristen Ess. `` Why Hamas Won '' ZNet. Palestine, January 31, 2006. Jump up ^ Peace with Israel for withdrawal to ' 67 borders, Ynetnews March 3, 2006 Jump up ^ Butcher, Tim ( February 9, 2006 ). `` Hamas offers deal if Israel pulls out ''. The Telegraph. London. Retrieved May 4, 2010. Jump up ^ John Pike. `` Hamas ( Islamic Resistance Movement ) ''. Globalsecurity.org. Retrieved May 27, 2010. Jump up ^ Palestinian sanctions to remain BBC, March 20, 2007 Jump up ^ Ravid, Barak ( June 6, 2006 ). `` In 2006 letter to Bush, Haniyeh offered compromise with Israel ''. Haaretz. Retrieved August 1, 2011. ^ Jump up to : `` A ' New Hamas ' through Its New Documents ''. Journal of Palestine Studies. 35 ( 4 ). Summer 2006. doi : 10.1525 / jps. 2006.35. 4.6. Retrieved May 30, 2011. Jump up ^ `` The Proof Is in the Paper Trail ''. Vanity Fair. March 5, 2008. Retrieved August 1, 2011. Jump up ^ Mahnaimi, Uzi. `` Israel foils plot to kill Palestinian president '', The Sunday Times, May 7, 2006 Jump up ^ McGreal, Chris ( June 10, 2006 ). `` Death on the Beach : Seven Palestinians killed as Israeli shells hit family picnic ''. The Guardian. London. Retrieved May 4, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Palestinian Child Buries Slain Family ''. IslamOnline.net. June 11, 2006. Archived from the original on December 7, 2008. Jump up ^ Katz, Yaakov ( June 20, 2006 ). `` HRW says it ca n't refute IDF Gaza beach findings blast ''. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved May 27, 2010. Jump up ^ Katz, Yaakov ( June 22, 2006 ). `` IDF : Second piece of shrapnel not ours ''. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved May 27, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Militants Fire Rockets Into South Israel ''. San Francisco Chronicle. March 5, 2010. Archived from the original on January 25, 2009. Retrieved May 27, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Operation Summer Rains '', GlobalSecurity.org Jump up ^ `` PM : We will not recapture Gaza ''. Ynetnews. July 2, 2006. Archived from the original on January 20, 2008. ^ Jump up to : `` Israelis, Palestinians urged to ' step back from the brink ', avert full - scale conflict, as Security Council debates events in Gaza ''. United Nations. June 30, 2006. Jump up ^ `` Fatah and Hamas no nearer to unity as Palestinian parliament 's term ends ''. Haaretz. January 25, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Israel releases jailed Hamas parliament speaker ''. Haaretz. June 23, 2009. Jump up ^ CNN Library ( August 8, 2014 ). `` Gilad Shalit Fast Facts ''. CNN. Retrieved July 17, 2015. Jump up ^ Inside the tunnels Hamas built : Israel 's struggle against new tactic in Gaza war. The Guardian Jump up ^ Rudoren, Jodi ( 28 July 2014 ). `` Tunnels Lead Right to the Heart of Israeli Fear ''. New York Times. Retrieved 1 August 2014. Jump up ^ `` Palestinian government criticises UN position on Gaza tunnel ''. Middle East Monitor. 2013 - 10 - 23. Retrieved 2014 - 07 - 29. Jump up ^ `` The Palestinian National Unity Government ''. February 24, 2007. Retrieved June 4, 2010. Jump up ^ Rose, David ( October 20, 2009 ). `` The Gaza Bombshell ''. Vanity Fair. Retrieved August 1, 2011. Jump up ^ The `` Gaza War ''. ( PDF ). Retrieved on 2010 - 08 - 21. Jump up ^ McGirk, Tim ( June 13, 2007 ). `` What Happens After Hamas Wins ? ''. Time. Retrieved August 2, 2011. Jump up ^ Daraghmeh, M. ( June 17, 2007 ). `` Abbas forms cabinet, outlaws Hamas militias ''. The Star. Retrieved June 7, 2013. Jump up ^ `` Over 600 Palestinians killed in internal clashes since 2006 ''. Ynetnews. June 6, 2007. Retrieved August 24, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Fatah supporters surrender to Hamas '' The Guardian ( UK ), June 13, 2007 ^ Jump up to : Under Cover of War Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch ( 2009 - 04 - 20 ). Retrieved on 2010 - 08 - 21. ^ Jump up to : B'Tselem -- Violations of the human rights of Palestinians by Palestinians -- Severe human rights violations in inter-Palestinian clashes. Btselem.org ( 2007 - 11 - 12 ). Retrieved on 2010 - 08 - 21. Jump up ^ Abu Toameh, Khaled ( March 5, 2012 ). `` ' No political differences between Fatah, Hamas ' ''. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2013 - 02 - 14. Jump up ^ Ben Zion, Ilan ( 2012 - 03 - 03 ). `` Abbas : ' Hamas wants Palestinian state with ' 67 borders ' ''. The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2013 - 02 - 14. Jump up ^ `` Israel - Hamas truce announced ''. Al Jazeera English. June 17, 2008. Retrieved June 17, 2008. Jump up ^ Witte, Griff ; Knickmeyer, Ellen ( June 18, 2008 ). `` Israel, Hamas Agree on Gaza Strip Truce ''. The Washington Post. Retrieved August 2, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Israel agrees to Gaza ceasefire ''. BBC News. June 18, 2008. Retrieved August 2, 2011. ^ Jump up to : `` The Six Months of the Lull Arrangement '' ( PDF ). Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center. December 2008. Retrieved October 9, 2013. Jump up ^ `` US embassy cables : US talks to Israeli security chief about Arabs and Gaza '' The Guardian ( UK ), April 7, 2011 ' Diskin said that Israel does not like the tahdiya -- seeing it as a means whereby Hamas and other groups can regroup and re-arm -- but also dislikes the current situation. The ISA, he said, believes that the best option now is a large - scale ground incursion into the Gaza Strip that allows the IDF to take over the southern part of the Gaza Strip and to stop smuggling and increase pressure on Hamas. `` If you do this, it will cause big problems for Hamas ' survival in the Gaza Strip, '' he said. ' Jump up ^ Avi Isacharoff ; Yuval Azoulay ( June 27, 2008 ). `` Hamas : Continued rocket fire by Fatah armed group harms Palestinian interests ''. Haaretz. Retrieved April 16, 2014. Jump up ^ `` Hamas arrests militants after rocket fire '' Reuters. July 10, 2008 Jump up ^ `` Israel closes Gaza after rockets '' BBC, June 25, 2008 Jump up ^ `` Gaza truce broken as Israeli raid kills six Hamas gunmen '', The Guardian, November 5, 2008. Jump up ^ Why Israel went to war in Gaza, The Guardian, January 4, 2008. Jump up ^ Robin Lustig ( January 6, 2009 ). `` Gaza : the numbers ''. BBC News. Retrieved May 27, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Rockets from Gaza bombard Israeli area ''. UPI. Retrieved May 27, 2010. ^ Jump up to : `` Hamas ' might renew truce ' in Gaza ''. London : BBC News. December 23, 2008. Retrieved December 27, 2008. Jump up ^ `` Why Israel Attacked '' Time magazine -- December 27, 2008 ^ Jump up to : Civilian death toll rises after second day of air strikes The Guardian ( UK ), December 29, 2008 ^ Jump up to : Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill more than 200 msnbc.com, December 28, 2008 Jump up ^ IAF kills Hamas strongman Siam -- Confronting Hamas, The Jerusalem Post Archived February 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ `` Obituary : Nizar Rayyan ''. London : BBC News. January 1, 2009. Retrieved January 9, 2009. Jump up ^ `` Key Hamas Leader Killed ''. London : BBC News. January 15, 2009. Retrieved January 15, 2009. Jump up ^ `` Warnings Not Enough for Gaza Families '' The New York Times, January 5, 2009 Jump up ^ `` Israel Deepens Gaza Incursion as Toll Mounts '' The New York Times, January 5, 2009 Jump up ^ `` Strike at Gaza school ' kills 40 ' ''. London : BBC News. January 7, 2009. Retrieved January 9, 2009. Jump up ^ `` Israel ' shelled civilian shelter ' ''. London : BBC News. January 9, 2009. Retrieved January 9, 2009. Jump up ^ `` Israel accused of war crimes over 12 - hour assault on Gaza village '' The Guardian January 18, 2009 Jump up ^ `` Israel declares ceasefire in Gaza ''. London : BBC News. January 18, 2009. Retrieved January 19, 2009. Jump up ^ `` Hamas announces ceasefire in Gaza ''. London : BBC News. January 18, 2009. Retrieved January 19, 2009. Jump up ^ Agence France - Presse ( September 21, 2010 ). `` Israel, Hamas probes on Gaza violations inadequate ''. Daily Nation. Retrieved June 7, 2013. Jump up ^ Hamas releases second response to Goldstone Report Archived July 23, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Palestine Note, July 28, 2010 ``... approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed according to the Hamas government and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. The Israeli army puts the number at 1,166. '' Jump up ^ `` Hamas says 300 Fighters Killed in Gaza war ''. Agence France - Presse. November 1, 2010. Retrieved August 1, 2011. Jump up ^ Liel, Alon ( November 1, 2010 ). `` Hamas confirms losses in Cast Lead for first time ''. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved August 1, 2011. Jump up ^ Abu Toameh, Khaled ( August 16, 2009 ). `` Mashaal : Hamas can speak with Obama ''. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved August 17, 2009. Jump up ^ Speech of Khaled Meshaal August 30, 2009 ( rough automated translation from Arabic ) Jump up ^ Pollock, David. `` Rejectionists Readying to Counter U.S. Peace Push ''. Washington Institute for Near East Policy. September 1, 2009. Jump up ^ Video interview of Khaled Meshal by Charlie Rose, May 28, 2010 Click on small `` transcript '' link at top of comments section to view transcript ; scroll up to view video. Jump up ^ Hamas renews offer to end fight if Israel withdraws Reuters, May 30, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Hamas Chief Outlines Terms for Talks on Arab - Israeli Peace ''. The Wall Street Journal. July 31, 2009. Retrieved June 21, 2012. Jump up ^ Post-Assad Syria would drop special Iran ties Reuters December 3, 2011 Jump up ^ `` Hamas ditches Assad, backs Syrian revolt ''. Reuters. 24 February 2012. Jump up ^ `` Syria Berates Hamas Chief, an Old Ally, on State TV ''. The New York Times, October 2, 2012. Jump up ^ `` Hamas and Fatah in unity talks, says Khaled Meshaal ''. BBC News, February 7, 2013. Jump up ^ `` 2 Hamas leaders killed in Syria, sources say ''. Ma'an News Agency, October 29, 2012. Jump up ^ `` Syria Shuts Down Hamas Offices ''. Arutz Sheva, November 6, 2012. Jump up ^ `` NGO accuses Damascus of killing two Hamas members in Syria ''. Al - Ahram Online, January 9, 2013. Jump up ^ `` ' Military wing of Hamas training Syrian rebels ' ''. The Jerusalem Post. Reuters. April 5, 2013. Retrieved April 16, 2014. ^ Jump up to : Kotsev, Victor ( March 26, 2013 ). `` A Spring Revival for the Peace Process ? ''. Sada. Retrieved March 29, 2013. Jump up ^ `` Hamas appoints first spokeswoman -- Middle East ''. Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 2014 - 07 - 28. Jump up ^ Palestinian Leader Assails Hamas, Calling Unity Pact Into Question. By JODI RUDORENSEPT. August 7, 2014. New York Times. Jump up ^ Abbas blames Hamas for prolonged battle with Israel. AP AND AVI ISSACHAROFF August 29, 2014 Jump up ^ Abbas hints PA close to ending unity agreement with Hamas. By KHALED ABU TOAMEH. September 7, 2014 Jump up ^ `` Hamas criticizes construction delays as Israeli plot ''. www.jpost.com. Jpost Inc. 26 October 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` Anti-Semitic Hate Speech in the Name of Islam ''. Spiegel Online International. May 16, 2008. ^ Jump up to : Hamas Condemns the Holocaust The Guardian May 12, 2008 Jump up ^ `` New propaganda song from Hamas ''. Haaretz. 11 November 2014. Jump up ^ `` Online Terrorists Prey on the Vulnerable ''. Globalpolitician.com. Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved August 1, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Hamas Children 's Magazine Al - Fateh Encourages Terrorism, Glorifies Martyrdom ''. Memri.org. Retrieved August 1, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Hamas Magazine for Kids Promotes Martyrdom and Hatred ''. Adl.org. Retrieved August 1, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Hamas leader killed in air strike ''. London : BBC. January 1, 2009. Jump up ^ `` Hamas TV station shut down ''. Archived from the original on October 9, 2007. Retrieved 2007 - 10 - 09., news24.com, January 22, 2006 ^ Jump up to : `` Terrorism : Al Aqsa TV ''. ADL. Retrieved 2009. Check date values in : access - date = ( help ) Jump up ^ `` Hamas Launches Television Network ''. NPR. Retrieved February 3, 2006. Jump up ^ Johnson, Alan ( May 15, 2008 ). `` Hamas and antisemitism ''. London : The Guardian. Jump up ^ Shitrit, pp. 73 -- 4. Jump up ^ Phillips, p. 81. Jump up ^ Shitrit p. 74. Jump up ^ Gerber p. 27. Jump up ^ Cheryl Rubenberg, Palestinian Women : Patriarchy and Resistance in the West Bank, Lynne Reinner 2001 pp. 230 -- 231 Jump up ^ Deborah J. Gerner, ' Mobilizing Women for Nationalist Agendas, ' in Valentine M. Moghadam ( ed. ), From Patriarchy to Empowerment : Women 's Participation, Movements, and Rights in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia Syracuse University Press, 2007 pp. 17 -- 39 p. 27. Jump up ^ `` Hamas encourages Gaza women to follow Islamic code _English_Xinhua ''. News.xinhuanet.com. January 3, 2010. Retrieved August 2, 2011. ^ Jump up to : Hamas Bans Women Dancers, Scooter Riders in Gaza Push By Daniel Williams, Bloomberg, November 30, 2009 Jump up ^ Hamas patrols beaches in Gaza to enforce conservative dress code The Guardian ( UK ), October 18, 2009 Jump up ^ `` Women in Gaza : Life Under Hamas ''. BBC News. March 20, 2010. Retrieved January 6, 2013. Jump up ^ Rettig, Haviv ( March 5, 2013 ). `` UN Cancels Gaza Marathon ''. Timesofisrael.com. Retrieved March 27, 2013. ^ Jump up to : `` Palestine : Taliban - like attempts to censor music ''. Freemuse.org. August 17, 2006. Retrieved August 2, 2011. ^ Jump up to : Afghanistan in Palestine, by Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz, July 26, 2005 Jump up ^ `` Battling over the public sphere : Islamic reactions to the music of today ''. Jonas Otterbeck. Contemporary Islam. Volume 2, Number 3, 211 -- 228, doi : 10.1007 / s11562 - 008 - 0062 - y. ``... the over-all argument was that the event was haram '' Jump up ^ `` Palestinians Debate Whether Future State Will be Theocracy or Democracy ''. Associated Press, July 13, 2005. Jump up ^ Gaza Taliban ? by Editorial Staff, The New Humanist, Volume 121 Issue 1, January / February 2006 ^ Jump up to : Hamas Rule in Gaza : Three Years On, Yezid Sayigh, Crown Center for Middle East studies, March 2010 Jump up ^ See also : Letter from Gaza, Hamas 's tunnel diplomacy, By Thanassis Cambanis, June 18, 2010. Foreign Affairs. `` They want to know if we are more like the Taliban or Erdogan. They will see that we are closer to Erdogan. '' Jump up ^ Hamas : ' We want Erdoğan 's model, not Taliban 's '. Cansu Çamlibel, The Daily Hurriyet. June 10, 2010 Jump up ^ A Leader of Hamas Warns of West Bank Peril for Fatah The New York Times. June 21, 2006. `` Mr. Sawaf 's West Bank office in Ramallah has been destroyed, and the Palestinian paper Al Ayyam has refused to continue printing his paper in the West Bank. '' Jump up ^ Hamas - Gaza - extremism, The Weekly Middle East Reporter ( Beirut, Lebanon ), August 8, 2009 Jump up ^ Webman, Esther. Anti-semitic Motifs in the Ideology of Hizballah and Hamas, Project for the study of Anti-semitism, Tel Aviv University, 1994, p. 22. ISBN 965 - 222 - 592 - 4 Jump up ^ `` Anti-Zionist Jews meet with Hamas leader in Gaza ''. Haaretz. Associated Press. July 16, 2009. Retrieved April 16, 2014. Jump up ^ `` Hamas 's `` Hitler Youth '' style movement prepares for jihad ``. The Commentator. February 6, 2013. Retrieved July 21, 2014. Jump up ^ `` War is war : Why I stand with Israel ''. The Independent. July 11, 2014. Retrieved July 21, 2014. Jump up ^ `` Hamas : We 'll recognize Israel within ' 67 borders ( Ynetnews, 05.11. 06 ) ''. Ynetnews.com. June 20, 1995. Retrieved January 6, 2013. Jump up ^ `` Hamas : No recognition of Israel ''. BBC News. November 14, 2006. Retrieved January 6, 2013. Jump up ^ `` Hamas Covenant 1988 ''. Yale. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved 27 May 2010. ^ Jump up to : `` Hamas ratchets up its rhetoric against Jews ''. Herald Tribune. Retrieved November 21, 2008. Jump up ^ Lyons, John ( March 17, 2010 ). `` Israel defies the US over East Jerusalem buildings ''. The Australian. Jump up ^ Waked, Ali. `` Hamas ' al - Zahar : Israel made deal with the devil ''. Ynetnews. Jump up ^ Hamas Official Ahmad Bahr Preaches for the Annihilation of Jews and Americans, MEMRI, Clip No. 3538, August 10, 2012. Jump up ^ Hamas leader prays for annihilation of Jews, Americans by Greg Tepper, The Times of Israel, August 20, 2012. Jump up ^ Video : Hamas MP : ' Annihilate Jews and Americans ' by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, Israel National News, August 26, 2012. Jump up ^ Hamas top official : Kill every last Jew and American ( VIDEO ), Jewish Journal, August 24, 2012. Jump up ^ Hamas MP Marwan Abu Ras : The Jews Are Behind Every Catastrophe on Earth, MEMRITV, Clip No. 3598 ( transcript ), September 12, 2012. Jump up ^ Friedman, Matti ( December 26, 2012 ). `` Hamas official calls for suicide bombings in response to East Jerusalem construction plans ''. Timesofisrael.com. Retrieved January 6, 2013. Jump up ^ Blood Libel, the Short History of a Dangerous Myth, CNN, August 6, 2014. Jump up ^ Will Hamas recognize Israel as a Jewish state ?, CBS News, July 27, 2014. Jump up ^ `` Tunisian Islamists slam anti-Semitic chants ''. Ynetnews. Associated Press. January 10, 2012. Retrieved January 10, 2012. Jump up ^ Miller, Elhanan ( July 8, 2012 ). `` Contradicting Abbas, Hamas says it still believes in ' armed resistance ' against Israel ''. The Times of Israel. Retrieved July 10, 2012. Jump up ^ David Cronin ( May 15, 2009 ). `` Hamas against Zionism, not Judaism ''. Arab American News. Retrieved January 10, 2012. Jump up ^ Basim Naim ( January 13, 2009 ). `` We believe in resistance, not revenge ''. The Guardian ( opinion ). London. Retrieved January 10, 2012. Hamas has no quarrel with Jews, only with the actions of Israel Jump up ^ Israel Cracks Down on Islamic Group. Oct. 24, 1994, Pg. 1. Jump up ^ `` Palestinian Holocaust Denial ''. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. 2000 - 04 - 21. Retrieved 2013 - 01 - 06. Jump up ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20060207040823/http://www.ajn.com.au/pages/archives/feature/feature-03a.html. Archived from the original on February 7, 2006. Retrieved September 16, 2010. Missing or empty title = ( help ) Jump up ^ Iran leader 's Holocaust remarks condemned MSNBC, December 14, 2005 Jump up ^ `` Hamas springs to Iran 's defense '' Al Jazeera, December 15, 2005 Jump up ^ `` Hamas condemns the Holocaust '' The Guardian, May 12, 2008 Jump up ^ Hamas rips UN over Holocaust lessons, The Jerusalem Post September 30, 2009 Jump up ^ Hadid, Diaa ( August 31, 2009 ). `` Hamas leader denies Nazi genocide of Jews ''. The New York Times. Associated Press. Retrieved August 31, 2009. Jump up ^ `` Hamas rips U.N. for teaching the Holocaust ''. Archived September 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. JTA. August 31, 2009. August 31, 2009. Jump up ^ Sherwood, Harriet ( February 28, 2011 ). `` Hamas fights UN 's ' poisonous ' Holocaust lessons in Gazan schools ''. The Guardian. Retrieved July 10, 2012. Jump up ^ `` Hamas to U.N. : Do n't Teach Holocaust ''. The Jewish Week. March 1, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Hamas : PA official 's Auschwitz visit served Zionists ''. The Jerusalem Post. August 2, 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2012. Jump up ^ Miller, Elhanan ( August 2, 2012 ). `` PA official 's visit to Auschwitz sparks widening condemnation ''. The Times of Israel. Retrieved August 2, 2012. Jump up ^ `` Hamas ' blasts Palestinian official 's Auschwitz visit ' ''. BBC. August 2, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2012. Jump up ^ `` Hamas blasts Palestinian official 's Auschwitz trip ''. Ynetnews. Associated Press. August 2, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2012. Jump up ^ Abu, Khaled ( October 17, 2012 ). `` Hamas opposes Holocaust study at UNRWA schools ''. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved January 6, 2013. Jump up ^ Madelene Axelsson ( January 27, 2006 ). `` Islamistisk politik vinner mark '' ( in Swedish ). Stockholms Fria Tidning. Jump up ^ Israel At ' War to the Bitter End, ' Strikes Key Hamas Sites December 29, 2008, Fox News Jump up ^ Hamas in Politics, By Jeroen Gunning, pp. 128 -- 129, search at Books.Google.com ; see also The Rise of Hamas, by Paul W. Pope, at Dartmouth.edu Archived September 6, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ No End to War, by Walter Laqueur, p. 107. `` ( I ) n 1993 -- 1994 when Hamas... enlisted experts for bomb making, and the first suicide bombers went into action. Some of the very early operations aborted. The first successful suicide bomb attack occurred in the Jordan Valley in October 1993. The first bus attack happened in Afula in northern Israel in April 1994... '' Search at Books.Google.com Jump up ^ Suicide car bomb kills two near West Bank restaurant Associated Press, April 17, 1993 Jump up ^ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. `` Refworld Erased In A Moment : Suicide Bombing Attacks Against Israeli Civilians ''. UNHCR. Retrieved March 27, 2013. Jump up ^ Saarnivaara, Minn ( 2008 ). `` Suicide Campaigns as a Strategic Choice : The Case of Hamas ''. Policing. 2 ( 4 ) : 423 -- 433. doi : 10.1093 / police / pan061. Jump up ^ Erased In A Moment : Suicide Bombing Attacks Against Israeli Civilians V. Structures and Strategies of the Perpetrator Organizations, Human Rights Watch, October 2002. ISBN 1 - 56432 - 280 - 7 Jump up ^ `` Indiscriminate Fire, Palestinian Rocket Attacks on Israel and Israeli Artillery Shelling in the Gaza Strip ''. Human Rights Watch. June 30, 2007. Retrieved May 27, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Civilians under Assault, Hezbollah 's Rocket Attacks on Israel in the 2006 War ''. Human Rights Watch. August 28, 2007. Retrieved May 27, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Top Hamas fugitive nabbed ''. Ynetnews.com. May 23, 2006. Jump up ^ Barak Ravid ( March 17, 2009 ). `` Who are the deadly terrorists Israel refuses to release for Shalit ? ''. Haaretz. Retrieved April 16, 2014. Jump up ^ McCarthy, Rory ( 2008 - 02 - 05 ). `` Hamas says it was behind suicide blast in Israel ''. The Guardian. Retrieved 2014 - 09 - 22. Jump up ^ News Agencies and Haaretz Service ( 2008 - 07 - 27 ). `` Israeli troops in Hebron kill Hamas man behind Dimona attack ''. Haaretz. Retrieved 2014 - 09 - 22. Jump up ^ Anti-Israeli Terrorism in 2007 and its Trends in 2008 ( PDF ). Intelligence and Terrorism Information Cente ( Report ). Israel Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center. May 2008. pp. 11, 28. Archived from the original ( PDF ) on October 13, 2009. Retrieved June 5, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Victims of Palestinian Violence and Terrorism since September 2000 ''. GxMSDev. Archived from the original on April 3, 2007. Retrieved July 17, 2015. Jump up ^ BICOM Fact Sheet 2 : Ashkelon -- The Changing Scenario BICOM. 2008 - 05 - 03. Jump up ^ `` Mashaal offers to cease civilian attacks ''. Archived from the original on April 3, 2008. Retrieved June 1, 2016. March 31, 2008, The Jerusalem Post Jump up ^ Qassam lands in western Negev, no injuries Ynetnews November 20, 2008 Jump up ^ `` Netanyahu blames Hamas for the kidnapping of the three Israeli teens ''. Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 19 July 2014. Jump up ^ `` Hamas genocidal terrorists says Netanyahu ''. Israel News.Net. Retrieved 19 July 2014. Jump up ^ `` Kidnap and murder of Israeli teens : Palestinian suspect held, police say ''. The Times of India. Retrieved July 17, 2015. Jump up ^ `` Palestinian suspect held over kidnap murders of 3 Israelis ''. The Rakyat Post. Retrieved July 17, 2015. Jump up ^ `` Israel arrests suspected ringleader of cell that killed teens ''. The Times of Israel. Retrieved July 17, 2015. Jump up ^ Jack Khoury, Hamas claims responsibility for three Israeli teens ' kidnapping and murder, ' Haaretz 21 August 2014. Jump up ^ http://memritv.org. `` MEMRI : Hamas Leadership Acknowledges Responsibility for Kidnapping Three Israeli Teens ''. Memritv.org. Retrieved 22 August 2014. Jump up ^ ' Mashal : Hamas was behind murder of three Israeli teens, ' Ynet 22 August 2014. Jump up ^ Isikoff, Michael ( 2014 - 08 - 25 ). `` In personal plea, top Hamas leader calls on Obama to stop ' holocaust ' in Gaza ''. Yahoo ! News. Retrieved 2014 - 09 - 02. Jump up ^ Toronto, Nathan W. ( 2008 - 04 - 20 ). `` Where Have All the Bombers Gone ? ''. Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. Retrieved 2016 - 09 - 23. ^ Jump up to : `` HRW : Hamas rockets from Gaza violated laws of war ''. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved December 24, 2012. Jump up ^ HRW report April 11, 2010 Jump up ^ Al - Mughrabi, Nidal ( February 5, 2010 ). `` Hamas `` regrets '' civilian deaths, Israel unmoved ``. Reuters. Jump up ^ Baker, Luke ( 24 August 2014 ). `` Israel says it found Hamas training manual in Gaza ''. Reuters. Retrieved 25 August 2014. Jump up ^ Halevi, Jonathan D. ( 4 August 2014 ). `` The Hamas Threat to the West Is No Different from ISIS ''. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Retrieved 25 August 2014. Jump up ^ Steven Lee Myers and Helene Cooper, Obama Defers to Bush, for Now, on Gaza Crisis, New York Times December 28, 2009 Jump up ^ U.S. Condemns Hamas in Midst of Israeli Strikes, Fox News December 28, 2008 Jump up ^ Clinton calls for ' durable ' Gaza truce, condemns rockets, AFP March 2, 2009 Jump up ^ `` IDF general lays out plan for reviving Gaza economy ''. Haaretz. The Associated Press. October 26, 2010. Retrieved June 7, 2013. Jump up ^ Weiss, Mark ( September 4, 2010 ). `` Islamist groups attempt to derail Middle East talks ''. Irish Times. Jump up ^ `` Hamas targets Israeli - Palestinian talks by killing four Israelis ; Hamas took responsibility for the fatal shooting of four Israeli settlers outside Hebron today, on the eve of Israeli - Palestinian talks in Washington, '' Joshua Mitnick, August 31, 2010, Christian Science Monitor. Jump up ^ `` Hamas to launch ' more effective attacks ' on Israel ''. The Jerusalem Post. September 3, 2010. Jump up ^ `` The Shadow of Hamas ''. The Washington Post. September 8, 2010. Retrieved September 7, 2013. Jump up ^ Gaza militants vow wave of attacks against Israel, Reuters September 2, 2010 Jump up ^ Kershner, Isabel ; Landler, Mark ( August 31, 2010 ). `` Israeli Settlers Killed in West Bank ''. New York Times. Retrieved September 7, 2013. Jump up ^ Liel, Alon. `` Abbas condemns Hamas attack ; 4 Israelis shot dead ''. The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on September 1, 2010. Retrieved August 1, 2011. Jump up ^ `` US says Hebron attack must not derail Middle East talks ''. BBC News. September 1, 2010. Jump up ^ `` 4 Israelis killed by Hamas ''. News.xinhuanet.com. September 1, 2010. Retrieved August 1, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Hamas official : Israeli settlers are a legitimate military target ''. Haaretz. September 1, 2010. Retrieved August 1, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Hamas explains using civilians as human shields '', Palestinian Media Watch, ( December 28, 2008 ). Jump up ^ `` Hamas PLC Speaker Ahmad Bahr : 2.5 Million Virgins Await the Prophets, the Righteous, and the Martyrs in a Single Palace in the Garden of Eden ''. The Middle East Research Institute,. September 13, 2010. Retrieved September 7, 2013. ^ Jump up to : `` Report : Hamas weighing large - scale conflict with Israel ''. Ynetnews. October 3, 2006. Jump up ^ Issam Aburaiya ( October 3, 2006 ). `` Hamas and Palestinian Nationalism '' ( PDF ). Archived from the original ( PDF ) on February 23, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Fatah, Hamas gunbattles kill 7 ''. Toronto Star. October 1, 2006. Jump up ^ Yosif Mahmoud Haj - Yahis ; et al. ( 2009 ). `` Alleged Palestinian Collaborators with Israel and Their Families : A Study of Victims of Internal Political Violence ''. Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. pp. 18 -- 19. Missing or empty url = ( help ) Jump up ^ Kalman, Matthew ( January 22, 2009 ). `` Hamas executes suspected Fatah traitors in Gaza ''. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved September 7, 2013. Jump up ^ The Associated Press ( November 20, 2012 ). `` Hamas militants kill 6 suspected informers, witnesses say -- World -- CBC News ''. Cbc.ca. Retrieved January 6, 2013. Jump up ^ `` Rights group pans Hamas for not probing executions ''. The Times of Israel. Jump up ^ `` Large number of alleged Israeli informers killed in Gaza ''. Palestinian News.Net. 22 August 2014. Retrieved 23 August 2014. ^ Jump up to : Klein, Aaron J. ; Ginsburg, Mitch ( 2014 - 09 - 03 ). `` None of alleged Gaza collaborators were Israeli assets, intel official says ''. The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2014 - 09 - 23. Jump up ^ `` Middle East Unrest erupts in Gaza Strip ''. BBC News. July 3, 2002. Retrieved May 27, 2010. Jump up ^ Levinson, Charles ( June 10, 2007 ). `` Shot by their own side, healed by the enemy -- Telegraph ''. London : Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved May 27, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Gaza : Armed Palestinian Groups Commit Grave Crimes ''. Human Rights Watch. June 13, 2007. Jump up ^ `` Mosque gun battle rages in Gaza ''. London : BBC News. August 14, 2009. Jump up ^ `` Gaza Islamist leader dies in raid ''. London : BBC News. August 15, 2009. Jump up ^ `` More than 120 youths were killed by Hamas because they did not abide by the house arrest imposed on them. This is in addition to the extrajudicial execution of 30 -- 40 people during the Israeli assault. '' http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Abbas-hints-PA-close-to-ending-unity-deal-with-Hamas-374626 ^ Jump up to : Ben, Ariel. `` Hamas denies 32 of its operatives killed in Sinai JPost Israel News ''. JPost. Retrieved 2014 - 08 - 02. Jump up ^ Ben, Ricky ( 2013 - 08 - 28 ). `` Five Hamas members arrested over Egyptian police massacre ''. The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2014 - 08 - 02. ^ Jump up to : `` Top News, Latest headlines, Latest News, World News & U.S News - UPI.com ''. Onswipe.upi.com. 2014 - 07 - 29. Retrieved 2014 - 08 - 02. ^ Jump up to : Issacharoff, Avi ( 2013 - 08 - 22 ). `` Egypt 's ire raised as Hamas harbors Sinai jihadists ''. The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2014 - 09 - 30. Their leader, Mohammed Dormosh, is well known for his ties to the Hamas leadership. Jump up ^ Egypt Opens Murder, Conspiracy Investigation Against Morsi. NPR. 2013 - 07 - 26. Jump up ^ Morsi accused of plotting with Hamas. Al Jazeera English. 2013 - 07 - 26. Jump up ^ `` Egypt blames Gaza group for bombing ''. Al Jazeera. 2011 - 01 - 23. Retrieved 2014 - 09 - 30. Jump up ^ Gold, Dore ( 2014 - 04 - 27 ). `` The Myth of the Moderate Hamas ''. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Retrieved 2014 - 09 - 30. Jump up ^ `` Army of Islam says Shalit now solely under control of Hamas ''. Haaretz. 2007 - 07 - 04. Retrieved 2014 - 09 - 30. We at Army of Islam made the preparations for operation ' Dissipating Illusion, ' which was carried out in cooperation with the Al Aqsa Martyrs ' Brigade and the Popular Resistance Committees Salah a-Din. We kidnapped Gilad Shalit and handed him over to Hamas. Jump up ^ `` Egyptian interior minister accuses Hamas of supporting Mansoura attackers ''. Al - Ahram. 2014 - 01 - 02. Retrieved 2014 - 09 - 30. Jump up ^ Matthew Levitt, pp. 143 -- 169. Jump up ^ Krista Wiegand, Bombs and Ballots : Governance by Islamist Terrorist and Guerrilla Groups, Ashgate Publishing, Revised edition 2013 p. 124. ' Officially, Hamas is considered by American and Israeli policymakers and some academics as the epitome of a terrorist group... Due to the gravity and consequences of Hamas 's use of terrorism as a tactic, all other aspects of Hamas, including its extensive social services programs and its role as a political party are overshadowed and often ignored by policy makers. Others recognize the complexity of Hamas as an organization and suggest that Hamas will continue to transform itself into a full political party and eventually disarm and cease all violent tactics. They view Hamas as a complex organization with terrorism as only one component, which is likely to evolve into a non-violent political party. Jump up ^ Luke Peterson, Palestine - Israel in the Print News Media : Contending Discourses, Routledge 2014 p. 99. Jump up ^ Aaron Mannes, Profiles in Terror : The Guide to Middle East Terrorist Organizations, Rowman & Littlefield, 2003 p. 114. Jump up ^ The World Almanac of Islamism : 2014, American Foreign Policy Council / Rowman & Littlefield, 2014 p. 15. Jump up ^ Levitt, pp. 50 -- 51. Jump up ^ Statement by High Representative / Vice-President Federica Mogherini on the decision to appeal the Judgment regarding Hamas, 19 / 01 / 2015 Jump up ^ Benedetta Voltalini and Federica Bicchi, ' When Security Trumps Democracy : Israel and Palestined, ' Anne Wetzel, Jan Orbie ( eds. ), The Substance of EU Democracy Promotion : Concepts and Cases, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015 pp 162 -- 176 p. 170 : ' This example shows how the declared substance of EU democracy promotion can change in the implementation phase. While supporting the elections in the Occupied Territories and confirming their regular development, the EU was not willing to accept the results in the light of perceived security concerns and mounting pressure from the US and Israel to boycott Hamas. / Jump up ^ `` EU court keeps Hamas on terrorism list, removes Tamil Tigers ''. Retuers. 26 July 2017. The lower court had found that the listing was based on media and internet reports rather than decisions by a `` competent authority ''. But the ECJ said such decisions were not required for groups to stay on the list, only for their initial listing. Jump up ^ ' Hamas Should Be Taken Off Terror List, EU Legal Adviser Says, ' Haaretz 22 September 2016. Jump up ^ ' Egyptian court declares Hamas a ' terrorist ' group ', Al Jazeera 28 February 2015. Jump up ^ `` Saudi Ambassador to Algeria : Hamas is a terrorist group ''. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 14 July 2017. Jump up ^ According to Michael Penn, ( Japan and the War on Terror : Military Force and Political Pressure in the US - Japanese Alliance, I.B. Tauris 2014 pp. 205 -- 206 ), Japan initially welcomed the democratic character of the elections that brought Hamas to power, and only set conditions on its aid to Palestine, after intense pressure was exerted by the Bush Administration on Japan to alter its policy. Jump up ^ `` Lists associated with Resolution 1373 ''. New Zealand Police. 20 July 2014. Jump up ^ David Sobek, The Causes of War, John Wiley & Sons, 2013 p. 45. Jump up ^ Levitt, p. 49. Jump up ^ Alethia H. Cook, ' The Subtle Impact of Iran on the Flotilla Incident, ' in Thomas E. Copeland ( ed. ), Drawing a Line in the Sea : The Gaza Flotilla Incident and the Israeli - Palestinian Conflict, Lexington Books, 2011 pp. 35 -- 44, p. 36. Jump up ^ Robert O. Freedman, ' Russia, ' in Joel Peters, David Newman ( eds. ), The Routledge Handbook on the Israeli - Palestinian Conflict, Routledge, 2013 pp. 325 -- 333 p. 331 Jump up ^ Ioannis Tellidis, Harmonie Toros ( eds. ), Terrorism : Bridging the Gap with Peace and Conflict Studies : Investigating the Crossroad, Routledge, 2016 p. 199 : ' In 2006, Norway explicitly distanced itself from the EU proscription regime, claiming that it was causing problems for its role as a ' neutral facilitator '. ' Jump up ^ Swiss Federal Council ( 2016 - 05 - 11 ), Verbindungen des EDA zur Hamas ( Statement regarding interpellation # 16.3151 from 2016 - 03 - 17 by Erich Siebenthal, member of the National Council ), The Swiss parliament, retrieved 2017 - 06 - 05 Jump up ^ David J. Whittaker ( ed. ), The Terrorism Reader, Routledge ( 2001 ) 2012 p. 84. Jump up ^ Samuel Feldberg, ' Israel and Brazil : An Emerging Power and its Quest for Influence in the Middle East, ' in Colin Shindler ( ed. ), The World Powers : Diplomatic Alliances and International Relations Beyond the Middle East, I.B. Tauris 2014. pp. 187 -- 199 Jump up ^ `` Gaza : Palestinian Rockets Unlawfully Targeted Israeli Civilians ''. HRW. Retrieved December 24, 2012. ^ Jump up to : Steven Erlanger ( January 10, 2009 ). `` A Gaza War Full of Traps and Trickery ''. The New York Times. Israel ; Gaza Strip. Retrieved August 1, 2011. Jump up ^ Hamas used almost 100 mosques for military purposes. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved on 2010 - 08 - 21. Jump up ^ `` Ground war in Gaza drives up civilian casualties ''. MLive. Associated Press. January 7, 2009. Retrieved June 7, 2013. Jump up ^ `` Video : Hamas uses civilians as a means to achieving military goals ''. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. January 11, 2009. January 13, 2009. Jump up ^ `` Video : Hamas uses civilians as a means to achieving military goals ''. 2009. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. See 4 : 00 in the video. Jump up ^ `` Hamas 's human shields ''. The Jerusalem Post. March 4, 2008. January 13, 2009. Jump up ^ `` Weapons Hidden in Mosque Neutralized by Israel Air Force Dec 31, 2008 ''. on YouTube December 31, 2008. January 13, 2009. Jump up ^ Barzak, Ibrahim and Matti Friedman. `` Israel Destroys Hamas Homes, Gaza Mosque ''. Time. January 2, 2009. January 13, 2009. Jump up ^ Mizroch, Amir. `` Dichter : Hamas salaries paid at Shifa Hospital ''. The Jerusalem Post. January 12, 2009. January 13, 2009. Jump up ^ IDF morality exemplified at mosque. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved on 2010 - 08 - 21. Jump up ^ `` Gaza Operation Investigations : Second Update ''. Mfa.gov.il. Retrieved August 24, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Gaza Operations Investigations : Second Update July 2010 '' ( PDF ). Retrieved August 24, 2010. ^ Jump up to : `` Hamas rocket attacks ' war crimes ' ''. BBC News. August 6, 2009. Retrieved August 2, 2011. Jump up ^ Amos Harel ( January 12, 2009 ). `` IDF investigation shows errant mortar hit UN building in Gaza ''. Haaretz. Retrieved April 16, 2014. Jump up ^ Turning a Blind Eye Human Rights Watch April 11, 2010 Jump up ^ Israel : Investigate ' White Flag ' Shootings of Gaza Civilians Human Rights Watch August 13, 2009 Jump up ^ `` Israeli ' human shield ' claim is full of holes '' The National ( UAE ) January 13, 2009. Jump up ^ `` Hamas Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri : Human - Shield Policy Is Effecive ''. YouTube.com. 2014 - 07 - 09. Retrieved 2014 - 08 - 02. Jump up ^ Zahran, Mudar ( 2014 - 09 - 19 ). `` Gazans Speak Out : Hamas War Crimes ''. Gatestone Institute. Archived from the original on 2014 - 09 - 21. Retrieved 2014 - 09 - 30. Jump up ^ `` A Soldier 's Account from Gaza : How Hamas Used Human Shields ''. IDF Blog. 2014 - 08 - 25. Retrieved 2014 - 09 - 30. Jump up ^ `` An IDF Soldier 's Experiences in Gaza ''. IDF Blog. 2014 - 09 - 21. Retrieved 2014 - 09 - 30. Jump up ^ `` First Hand Account of Gaza Operation by Wounded IDF Soldier ''. IDF Blog. 2014 - 08 - 05. Retrieved 2014 - 09 - 30. Jump up ^ `` Archived copy '' ( PDF ). Archived from the original ( PDF ) on August 13, 2011. Retrieved 2010 - 06 - 14. Hamas and the Terrorist Threat from the Gaza Strip The Main Findings of the Goldstone ReportVersus the Factual Findings, Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. ^ Jump up to : `` Human Rights Watch Statement on our November 22 Press Release ''. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 2012 - 11 - 20. Jump up ^ Human shield deters Israel strike BBC News November 19, 2006 Jump up ^ `` Hamas 's human shields ''. The Jerusalem Post. March 4, 2008. November 15, 2009. Jump up ^ OPT : Civilians Must Not Be Used to Shield Homes Against Military Attacks Human Rights Watch November 22, 2006 Jump up ^ Human Rights Council ( 15 September 2009 ). `` Human Rights in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories : Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict '' ( PDF ). unrol.org. United Nations. p. 147. Retrieved 3 June 2015. Jump up ^ `` Dealing with Hamas 's human shield tactics ''. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved December 26, 2012. Jump up ^ Goodenough, Patrick. ( 2009 - 10 - 16 ) Israelis Took Unprecedented Steps to Safeguard Civilians, Says British Officer Archived July 29, 2010, at the Wayback Machine... CNSnews.com. Retrieved on 2011 - 06 - 18. Jump up ^ U.K. Commander Challenges Goldstone Report. Archived October 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. UN Watch. Retrieved on 2011 - 06 - 18. Jump up ^ Professor David W Lovell ; Professor Igor Primoratz ( 28 April 2013 ). Protecting Civilians During Violent Conflict : Theoretical and Practical Issues for the 21st Century. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 344. ISBN 978 - 1 - 4094 - 7685 - 6. Jump up ^ `` Video : Hamas uses civilians as a means to achieving military goals ''. 2009. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. See 06 : 46 through 08 : 00 in the video. Jump up ^ Youths ' Suicide Mission Stuns Palestinians ABC April 25, 2002 Jump up ^ Teenage Suicide Bombers Archived December 12, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. MEF 2002 Jump up ^ Freimann, Myer ( 2014 - 07 - 25 ). `` Hamas Killed 160 Palestinian Children to Build Tunnels ''. Tablet. Retrieved 2014 - 08 - 07. Jump up ^ `` Hamas forces try to arrest prominent Gaza journalist -- ''. International Herald Tribune. March 29, 2009. Retrieved May 27, 2010. Jump up ^ Spokesperson of Presidency Condemns Hamas Militias New Crimes against Citizens in Gaza Strip, WAFA, August 31, 2007. Jump up ^ Hamas disbands journalists union amid continuing incidents, Reporters without borders, September 6, 2007 Jump up ^ `` Hamas widens crackdown on journalists in Gaza ''. B92. November 15, 2007. Retrieved July 4, 2008. Gaza 's Interior Ministry announced that journalists who do not hold official Hamas - issued press cards would not be allowed to work in Gaza. Jump up ^ Martin, Paul ( November 13, 2007 ). `` On - the - spot : ' I was arrested by Hamas ' -- Times Online ''. London : Timesonline.co.uk. Retrieved December 29, 2008. Jump up ^ Hamas de facto government bans distribution of Al - Ayyam newspaper in the Gaza Strip Ma'an News Agency, February 10, 2008 Jump up ^ `` Hamas orders closure of newspaper over caricature -- ''. International Herald Tribune. March 29, 2009. Retrieved May 27, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Maan News Agency ''. Maannews.net. Retrieved May 27, 2010. Jump up ^ Levinson, Charles ( August 26, 2007 ). `` Hamas honeymoon ends with torture ''. London : The Telegraph. Retrieved May 17, 2008. Jump up ^ al - Mughrabi, Nidal. `` Gaza clinics closed, retaliation for doctor strikes ''. Reuters. August 28, 2007. November 14, 2009. Jump up ^ Hamas blocks Fatah protests in Gaza, Ynetnews, September 7, 2007 Jump up ^ Hamas frees Fatah prisoners, Al - Jazeera, October 30, 2008. Jump up ^ `` IFJ Condemns Hamas Meddling in Gaza Journalists ' Affairs ''. International Federation of Journalists. August 2, 2012. Retrieved August 8, 2012. Jump up ^ `` PCHR slams Hamas for preventing journalists from traveling ''. Maannews.net. Retrieved January 6, 2013. Jump up ^ `` Reporters Without Borders condemns Hamas for ''. Maan News Agency. Retrieved March 8, 2016. Jump up ^ Liel, Alon. `` ' PA bans journalists from reporting human rights abuses ' ''. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved August 1, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Rights group : Hamas abusing Palestinians in Gaza ''. Ynetnews.com. Retrieved January 6, 2013. Jump up ^ `` World Report 2012 : Israel / Occupied Palestinian Territories ''. Human Rights Watch. January 22, 2012. Retrieved January 6, 2013. Jump up ^ Nidal al - Mughrabi. `` Hamas disputes HRW 's charges of torture, detentions in Gaza Reuters ''. Reuters. Retrieved January 6, 2013. Jump up ^ `` Palestine ( State of ) : ' Strangling Necks ' Abductions, torture and summary killings of Palestinians by Hamas forces during the 2014 Gaza / Israel conflict '' ( pdf ). amnesty.org. United Kingdom : Amnesty International. 26 May 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2015. Jump up ^ `` Gaza Palestinians tortured, summarily killed by Hamas forces during 2014 conflict ''. Amnesty International. 27 May 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2015. ^ Jump up to : Schanzer, Jonathan. `` How Hamas Lost the Arab Spring ''. ^ Jump up to : `` Hamas Still Has Some Friends Left ''. ^ Jump up to : `` Hamas Ties to Qatar Have Cost ''. April 22, 2013. ^ Jump up to : CATF Reports. `` Is Gaza Reconstruction Aid Rearming Hamas ? ''. Consortium Against Terrorist Finance. ^ Jump up to : `` Why does Qatar support Hamas ? ''. September 14, 2014. Jump up ^ Levs, Josh. `` Which Mideast power brokers support Hamas ? ''. CNN. Jump up ^ `` Husam Badran ''. BBC Watch. Jump up ^ `` Murderers ' Row : Who are the terrorists being freed in the Shalit deal ? ''. October 18, 2011. Jump up ^ CATF Reports ( March 18, 2016 ). `` A Rising Terror Threat : Hamas, Underground Tunnels, and Remote Control ''. Consortium Against Terrorist Finance. Jump up ^ `` Why Israel Lets Qatar Give Millions To Hamas ''. Jump up ^ Hamas supports military operation for political legitimacy in Yemen. Arab News. 30 March 2015. Jump up ^ `` Former Treasury Official : Same Network That Funded Hamas in U.S. Backs Boycotts of Israel ''. Jump up ^ `` Ties between Hamas - linked charities and BDS highlighted in Congressional testimony ''. Bibliography Mishal, Shaul ; Sela, Avraham ( 2006 ). The Palestinian Hamas : Vision, Violence, and Coexistence. New York : Columbia University Press. ISBN 978 - 0231140072. Mueller, Sebastian ( June 6, 2006 ). Hawala. An Informal Payment System and Its Use to Finance Terrorism ( 1st ed. ). Saarbrücken, Germany : VDM Verlag. p. 84. ISBN 978 - 3 - 86550 - 656 - 6. Roy, Sara ( 2011 ). Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza : Engaging the Islamist Social Sector. Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press. ISBN 978 - 0 - 691 - 12448 - 3. Yousef, Mosab Hassan ( March 3, 2010 ). Son of Hamas. Carol Stream, Illinois : Tyndale House. p. 288. ISBN 978 - 1 - 4143 - 3307 - 6. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to : Hamas ( category ) Wikiquote has quotations related to : Hamas Official website ( in English ) Official website ( in Arabic ) Britannica Hamas leaders CFR Hamas Charter The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) ( includes interpretation ) Hamas Shifts From Rockets to Public Relations The New York Times, July 23, 2009 22 years on the start of Hamas Al - Qassam Brigades ' Information Office Fatah and Hamas Human Rights Violations in the Palestinian Occupied Territories in 2007 by Elizabeth Freed of Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group Sadiki, Larbi, Tests and contests : Hamas without Syria Sherifa Zuhur, Hamas and Israel : Conflicting Strategies of Group - Based Politics ( PDF file ) December 2008 `` Hamas threatens attacks on US : Terrorist warns ' Middle East is full of American targets ' '' Ynet News. December 24, 2006. Accessed July 20, 2014. 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ul - Haq Qazi Hussain Ahmad Rached Ghannouchi Necmettin Erbakan Tariq Ramadan Jihadist groups Abu Sayyaf Ansar Dine Armed Islamic Group Egyptian Islamic Jihad Fatah al - Islam al - Gama'a al - Islamiyya Hamas Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Lashkar - e-Taiba Mahdi Army Palestinian Islamic Jihad al - Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Iraq in North Africa al - Shabaab Taliban Jihadist leaders Abdullah Yusuf Azzam Anwar al - Awlaki Mohammed Omar Osama bin Laden Omar Abdel - Rahman Juhayman al - Otaybi Ayman al - Zawahiri Abu Bakr al - Baghdadi Historical events Islamic revival Zia - ul - Haq 's Islamization Iranian Revolution Grand Mosque seizure Iranian hostage crisis Soviet invasion of Afghanistan Islamization of the Gaza Strip September 11 attacks War on Terror Fatwa on Terrorism Arab Spring Texts Reconstruction ( Iqbal, 1930s ) Principles ( Asad, 1961 ) Milestones ( Qutb, 1964 ) Islamic Government ( Khomeini, 1970 ) Islamic Declaration ( Izetbegović, 1969 - 1970 ) The Green Book ( Gaddafi, 1975 ) Israeli -- Palestinian conflict Participants Israel Israel Defense Forces Israel Police Mossad Shabak ( Shin Bet ) Palestinians Principals Palestinian National Authority Palestine Liberation Organization ( PLO ) Fatah Hamas Other groups al - Aqsa Brigades DFLP PLF PIJ PPSF PFLP PFLP - GC PRC Third - party groups Arab League Hezbollah Individuals Israelis Moshe Arens Ami Ayalon Ehud Barak Menachem Begin Meir Dagan Moshe Dayan Avi Dichter Yuval Diskin David Ben - Gurion Efraim Halevy Dan Halutz Tzipi Livni Golda Meir Shaul Mofaz Yitzhak Mordechai Benjamin Netanyahu Ehud Olmert Shimon Peres Yaakov Peri Yitzhak Rabin Amnon Lipkin - Shahak Yitzhak Shamir Ariel Sharon Shabtai Shavit Moshe Ya'alon Danny Yatom Zvi Zamir Palestinians Abu Abbas Mahmoud Abbas Moussa Arafat Yasser Arafat Yahya Ayyash Marwan Barghouti Mohammed Dahlan Mohammed Deif George Habash Wadie Haddad Ismail Haniyeh Nayef Hawatmeh Amin al - Husayni Ghazi Jabali Ahmed Jibril Abu Jihad Salah Khalaf Leila Khaled Sheikh Khalil Khaled Mashal Zuheir Mohsen Abu Ali Mustafa Abu Nidal Izz ad - Din al - Qassam Jibril Rajoub Abdel Aziz al - Rantisi Ali Hassan Salameh Salah Shehade Ramadan Shalah Fathi Shaqaqi Ahlam Tamimi Ahmed Yassin Timeline Background 1920 -- 1948 Mandatory Palestine ( intercommunal conflict ) 1920 Nebi Musa riots 1921 Jaffa riots 1929 Palestine riots Hebron massacre 1936 -- 39 Arab revolt 1944 -- 47 Jewish insurgency 1947 -- 48 Civil War 1948 -- 1970 1948 Arab -- Israeli War massacres 1948 -- present Fedayeen insurgency 1951 -- 1967 Attacks against Israeli civilians 1950s -- 1960s IDF reprisal operations 1953 Qibya massacre 1956 Kafr Qasim / Khan Yunis / Rafah massacres 1967 Six - Day War 1967 -- 70 War of Attrition 1968 Battle of Karameh Palestinian insurgency 1968 -- 1982 1970 Avivim school bus massacre 1972 Sabena Flight 571 / Munich massacre / Operation `` Wrath of God '' ( 1973 Lillehammer affair ) 1974 Kiryat Shmona massacre / Ma'alot massacre 1975 Savoy Hotel attack 1976 Operation `` Entebbe '' 1978 Coastal Road massacre / South Lebanon conflict 1980 Misgav Am hostage crisis 1973 -- 1987 1973 Yom Kippur War 1975 Zion Square bombing 1982 Lebanon War Siege of Beirut 1984 Bus 300 affair 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking / Operation `` Wooden Leg '' 1987 Night of the Gliders First Intifada 1987 -- 1991 1988 Tunis Raid 1989 Bus 405 attack 1990 Temple Mount riots 1990s Palestinian suicide attacks 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre Second Intifada 2000 -- 2005 Palestinian rocket attacks list Palestinian suicide attacks Israeli assassinations 2000 October events 2001 Santorini 2002 Karine A / Operation `` Defensive Shield '' / Battle of Jenin / Battle of Nablus / Operation `` Determined Path '' 2003 Abu Hasan / Ain es Saheb airstrike 2004 Operation `` Rainbow '' / Beit Hanoun raid / Operation `` Days of Penitence '' 2006 -- present 2006 Operation `` Bringing Home the Goods '' 2008 Mercaz HaRav / Jerusalem bulldozer attack 2009 Temple Mount riots 2010 Palestinian militancy campaign 2015 Israeli -- Palestinian conflict ( 2015 -- 2016 ) 2017 Temple Mount crisis Gaza -- Israel conflict 2006 -- present 2006 Gaza beach explosion / Gaza cross-border raid / Operation `` Summer Rains '' / Operation `` Autumn Clouds '' / Beit Hanoun shelling 2008 Gaza -- Egypt border breach / Operation `` Hot Winter '' 2008 -- 09 Gaza War 2010 Gaza flotilla raid 2012 Operation `` Returning Echo '' / Operation `` Pillar of Defense '' 2014 Operation `` Protective Edge '' 2015 Freedom Flotilla III Diplomacy Timeline 1948 -- 1991 1948 Palestinian exodus depopulated Arab settlements 1949 Lausanne Conference 1967 -- present Israeli settlement settler violence international law 1990s 1991 Madrid Conference 1993 / 95 Oslo Accords 1994 Protocol on Economic Relations ( Paris Protocol ) 1994 Gaza -- Jericho Agreement 1994 -- present US security assistance to PNA 1997 Hebron Agreement 1998 Wye River Memorandum 1999 Sharm el - Sheikh Memorandum 2000s 2000 Camp David Summit / Clinton Parameters 2001 Taba Summit 2002 Quartet established 2003 Road Map 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access 2006 Valley of Peace initiative 2007 Annapolis Conference 2009 Aftonbladet Israel controversy 2010s 2010 -- 11 Israeli -- Palestinian peace talks 2011 Palestine Papers 2013 -- 14 Israeli -- Palestinian peace talks United Nations 1947 UN Resolution 181 1948 UN Resolution 194 1967 UN Resolution 242 VIAF : 142009904 LCCN : n88280213 GND : 5069914 - 3 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hamas&oldid=800988708 '' Categories : Hamas 1987 establishments in the Palestinian territories Anti-Zionism in the Palestinian territories Islam and antisemitism Islamism in Israel Islamism in the Palestinian territories Islamic political parties Islamic fundamentalism Jihadist groups Muslim Brotherhood National liberation movements Organizations designated as terrorist in Asia Organisations designated as terrorist by Japan Palestinian militant groups Palestinian nationalist parties Palestinian political parties Palestinian terrorism Political parties established in 1987 Resistance movements Sunni Islamist groups Hidden categories : Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Congressional Research Service Webarchive template wayback links All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from July 2017 Articles with permanently dead external links CS1 errors : dates Pages with citations lacking titles Pages with citations having bare URLs CS1 Swedish - language sources ( sv ) Pages using web citations with no URL Wikipedia pages under 30 - 500 editing restriction Use mdy dates from September 2013 Articles containing Arabic - language text Pages using deprecated image syntax All accuracy disputes Articles with disputed statements from March 2017 All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from June 2015 Articles containing Hebrew - language text Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia Articles with Arabic - language external links Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Talk View source Contents About Wikipedia Wikimedia Commons Wikinews Wikiquote Alemannisch Asturianu Azərbaycanca বাংলা Bân - lâm - gú Беларуская Български Bosanski Brezhoneg Català Чӑвашла Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Føroyskt Français Galego 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Hrvatski Ido Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית Basa Jawa ქართული Қазақша Kiswahili Kurdî لۊری شومالی Latina Latviešu Lietuvių Magyar Македонски മലയാളം मराठी مصرى Bahasa Melayu Монгол Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча ਪੰਜਾਬੀ پنجابی پښتو Piemontèis Polski Português Română Русский Scots Shqip Sicilianu Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Soomaaliga کوردی Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Tagalog தமிழ் ไทย Türkçe Українська اردو Tiếng Việt Winaray 吴语 ייִדיש 粵語 Zazaki 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 17 September 2017, at 00 : 19. 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Question: hamas is a militant organization fighting against which country
Answer: Israel