Hamas

Hamas, Arabic for "zeal" and also an acronym "Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya," or Islamic Resistance Movement, is the largest and most influential Palestinian militant movement. It won the January 2006 Palestinian Authority's (PA) general legislative elections. Its greatest strength has been in Gaza, but it also has a significant following in the West Bank.

Like Hezbollah, it traditionally has had both a social services and a military wing. Hamas refuses to recognize the State of Israel, which has responded with economic sanction, and, in response to attacks on Israel, with military action.

Origins

Its leadership, including founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin came from the Muslim Brotherhood. He created, in 1973, al-Mujamma' al-Islami (the Islamic Center) to coordinate the Muslim Brotherhood's political activities in Gaza. Yassin founded Hamas as the Muslim Brotherhood's local political arm in December 1987, following the eruption of the first intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli control of the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas published its official charter in 1988, moving decidedly away from the Muslim Brotherhood's ethos of nonviolence.

Beginning in the late 1960s, Hamas's founder and spiritual leader,, preached and did charitable work in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both of which were occupied by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War. In 1973, Yassin established

Palestinian politics

After defeating Fatah, the party of the PA's president, Mahmoud Abbas, there has been a struggle for political dominance.

Fatah sent a unity proposal to Hamas in October 2009, which is being mediated by Egypt. One difficult point is that Hamas wants a clause that allows it to resist Israel.

Hamas, once viewed as the more radical Islamist party, is now pressed by more extreme groups. In August 2009, its security forces attacked the Ibn-Taymiyah mosque in the Gaza town of Rafah, killing a number of members of an insurgent Islamic sect called Jund Ansar Allah (JAA), along with the group's leader, Abdel-Latif Moussa. "Hamas had accused the group of bombing Internet cafés, music stores, foreign schools, and weddings -- allegations the group denied. In turn, JAA complained that Hamas had persecuted its members, confiscated money and equipment worth $120,000, and even tried to kidnap its Syrian military commander, Abu Abdallah al-Muhajir. At the mosque, Moussa and his followers refused to surrender to the Hamas forces gathered outside, and ensuing fighting left 22 dead. Hamas, which had presented itself as an Islamist alternative to Fatah, has had difficulty in maintaining its religious image, and has been more aggressive than Fatah in suppressing challenges. Increasingly subject to the same criticisms it had offered when opposition, it was challenged by Salafist organizations including al-Qaeda. "In distress, al-Qaeda is seeking to use the Palestinian question to improve its image by presenting itself as the true defender of the Palestinian people." when, after taking control of Gaza, it declined to impose Shar'ia law. JAA apparently triggered armed response when it announced it was establishing an Islamic emirate in Gaza, and put out a call for Palestinian to come to its mosque, armed.

Hamas lost international support and faced local opposition when it approved some Islamic law, but lost credibility as well when the tight Israeli border controls continued and settlements were not evacuated.

Military and terror operations

Its military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, has carried out suicide attacks and rocket and mortar strikes against Israeli civilian and military targets. In the early 1990s, they also targeted suspected Palestinian collaborators and Fatah rivals. Geographically, its operations focus on Israel and the Occupied Territories.