Who is the Hamas Terrorist Organization?

The months of February and March, 1996, were some of the bloodiest in Israeli history. In the span of eight days, four different terrorists blew themselves up using suicide bombs strapped to their bodies in densely populated areas in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Ashkelon. In total, 61 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly, were murdered. 

The Israeli public was shocked by these vicious attacks. The idea of suicide bombing was almost unheard of back then. The methods used by the terrorists, including attaching small metal pieces to the bomb, were intended to maximise the number of casualties. After a long investigation, the organization behind the attacks was revealed to be a relatively new Palestinian terrorist organization by the name of Hamas.

Hamas (Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement) is a Palestinian Islamist organization. Founded in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, Hamas began as a Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood with the expressed goal of founding an Islamic state on all of modern day Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.

According to the 1988 Hamas Charter, the document that affirms this goal, Hamas seeks to "raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine," and advocates Jihad, violent resistance, as the only means of fighting against Israel. Hamas is defined by its unwillingness to negotiate or compromise with Israel, asserting that "there is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad."

Hamas’ military wing, known as the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, is the cornerstone of the movement. During its history, it has carried out hundreds of terror attacks against Israeli civilians. In total, Hamas has committed over 90 suicide and bombing attacks, launched nearly 18,500 rockets and has killed over 650 innocent civilians.

In a terror campaign it led in the 1990s, Hamas carried out suicide bombings at restaurants, buses and public venues, killing hundreds of Israelis and derailing the fragile peace process. At the onset of the Second Intifada (2000-2005), Hamas intensified its terrorist activity, culminating in a suicide attack at a Passover dinner at the "Park Hotel" (27 March, 2002) that resulted in 30 dead and 155 wounded civilians. Almost 40% of suicide attacks by Palestinians in 2000-2005 were committed by Hamas.

The history of Hamas in Gaza

Israel and Gaza Explained

In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, uprooting all settlements and military installations, allowing the Palestinian Authority full control of the area and the Rafah land crossing to Egypt. In January 2006, Hamas won the Palestinian Parliamentary election (although it did not win the presidential election in 2005).

Following the election, the International Quartet (United States, Russia, the United Nations, and the European Union) declared that in order for the then Hamas-run Palestinian government to continue to receive foreign aid, it must recognize the State of Israel, end terrorist activities, and adhere to all previous agreements. Hamas rejected these terms, and international aid was halted.

After a brief attempt at a unity government under Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the conflict between Hamas and Fatah (the secular nationalist Palestinian movement headed by President Mahmud Abbas and Hamas' political rival) escalated and violence erupted throughout Gaza and the West Bank. In the Battle of Gaza in 2007, Hamas forcibly took over Gaza, using cruel violence against Fatah loyalists. In the fights between Fatah and Hamas, almost 600 people died, including 188 people in one week, Fatah loyalists even took refuge in Israel to be saved from cruel punishments by Hamas.

Hamas’ military power is also the main reason for its decade-long control of Gaza. After Hamas’ parliamentary victory in 2006, it sought to strengthen its grip on the Gaza Strip by establishing its own security force ("The Executive Force"), which answers only to the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry. The Executive Force and the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades were the main forces that took over Gaza during the Hamas-led coup and the subsequent purge of Fatah rivals.

After Hamas took over Gaza, it quickly intensified the mortar and rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, with rocket attacks rising from a few hundreds in 2005 to more than 4,000 during the 50 days of Operation ‘Strong Cliff’ (approx. 80 rockets per day) in 2014, to more than 4,000 during the 11 days of Operation ‘Guardian of the Walls’ (approx. 350 rockets per day) in 2021. Some of Hamas’ main targets were the civilian crossings into Gaza where vital humanitarian aid is delivered into Gaza. During these escalations, Hamas attacked those civilian crossings with mortar and rocket fire, terrorist raids, tunnels and suicide attacks, endagering the people passing there and the humanitarian aid entering into Gaza. Israeli authorities invested heavily in protecting the crossings, and during Operation Guardian of the Walls, the crossings were open at times to humanitarian aid, even when rockets were being fired at them from inside Gaza.

Hamas used the new control over Gaza to create a vast network of terror in the strip. Since 2007, it has created tens thousands of deadly rockets and missiles and shot them into Israel, hitting homes, schools and other civilian structures. Hamas has also built a fleet of boats, drones and other weapons to kill Israelis with, alongside a network of tunnels all throughout the Gaza Strip, some even penetrated Israel, until thwarted by the IDF.

Throughout the years it was discovered that Hamas regularly uses civilian infrastructure to hide its terrorist activity. Terrorist facilities like weapon depots, weapon manufacturing, research and development facilities, terror tunnels, launching pads and operational command and control offices were found and exposed by the IDF and by international news outlets. The use of civilian infrastructure to hide terrorist facilities is illegal under international law and poses the civilian Gazan population as a human shield for Hamas.

But even without the risk of living next to terrorist weapon facilities, the lives of Gazan under Hamas rule are harsh and tragic. Hamas runs a corrupt dictatorship over the Gaza Strip, often jailing, beating, damaging financially and even torturing opposing voices inside the Gaza Strip. It has used extreme violence to suppress demonstrations against its rule.

Journalists in Gaza are under near-constant inspection, interrogated and threatened if writing anything the Hamas rule sees as damaging their image. In the regime-run media, Hamas promotes religious extremism, dehumanizing Jews and the State of Israel, supporting terrorism and glorifying terrorists, even those who murdered innocent civilians, women and children.

Hamas governs in accordance with the sharia-based Palestinian Basic Law, violating many of the rights of women, including banning the participation of women in many social activities, and persecuting other minorities, like the LGBTQ community, which are in danger of a death sentence if revealed. The situation became so dire that in 2023 the Islamic legislative body declared a "fatwa," or a legal opinion, against the Islamist militant group Hamas, calling its treatment of millions of Palestinians living under its rule in Gaza "inhumane".

Today, Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization in many countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union. Australia was the most recent country to recognize Hamas as a terrorist group in 2022.