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

Palestiniam politics

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

Military and terror operations

Its military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, carry 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. <ref name=FAS>{{citation

| url = http://fas.org/irp/world/para/hamas.htm
| title = Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement)
| publisher = Federation of American Scientists