What is Hamas? The terrorist group behind the attack on Israel

Israel was the victim of a coordinated attack by air, land and sea on Saturday carried out by Hamas terrorists operating out of the West Bank of Gaza, where a large proportion of the population is Palestinian.

The surprise assault, which included rocket strikes on nearby villages in Israel, has killed more than 800 Israelis and left nearly 2,200 wounded. Around another 100 people have been taken hostage by the Iran-backed extremists.

The attack, the largest of its kind in the last 50 years, led Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare war against Hamas, with the Jewish State’s counterattack killing 370 Palestinians and injuring around 2,000 and threatening a full-scale ground invasion.

Territory in the area has been fought over since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Hamas is both a Muslim fundamentalist military organization and a political organization, which is considered to have the most power within the Palestinian National Authority.

The violence over the weekend also claimed the lives of at least nine Americans, further prompting US officials to vow strong support to Israel.

What is Hamas?

Hamas, also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, is a group that governs Gaza, a 25-mile-long strip of land along the Mediterranean with a population of more than two million people and the West Bank, a larger area which has both Palestinian and Israeli settlements but is under Israeli military occupation.

The group was born as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1987 to oppose Israelis occupying Gaza and the West Bank, with the goal of creating its own Palestinian state — something it has always said it would do through violence.

The group has repeatedly used terrorist tactics against the Israelis, including mass murder, rocket strikes, suicide bombings and kidnappings.

Hamas was ultimately labeled a terrorist organization by the United States in 1997.

Why is Hamas attacking Israel?

Hamas, since its conception, stands in opposition to Israel, with the terrorist group’s leadership vowing for the erasure of the Jewish state and the creation of an Islamic state in its place.

While the group has a history of attacking Israel, the latest violence over the weekend was on a larger scale than anything seen in decades. The military activity — which had been planned and given the go-ahead by leaders in Iran, according to the Wall Street Journal — was labelled Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

The reason given by Hamas for launching the action was “in defense of the Aqsa Mosque,” an important Muslim holy site in Jerusalem, which it claims Israel had allowed Jewish groups to “desecrate” praying at the site.

It also cited the longstanding Israeli blockade of the Gaza strip and Israeli violence against Palestinians as reasons for its terror attack.  

As of September, 227 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in 2023, which is more than 2022’s total and was far greater than the 29 Israeli fatalities suffered up to that point, according to the United Nations.

On Sunday, Saleh al-Arouri, deputy chief of Hamas’s political bureau, claimed the terrorist group had taken enough Israeli soldiers and civilian hostages during the shock attack on Saturday to swap for all the Palestinian prisoners in the country’s jails, said to number 5,200.

In response to Hamas’ actions, Israel Defense Forces has called up thousands of reserve troops and amassed them on the border of the West Bank and is poised to launch its own ground operation.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said told all civilians in the area to leave because the Israeli military will turn “all Hamas hiding places into rubble.”

Who funds Hamas?

While Hamas is recognized as a terrorist group by various nations throughout the world, it has several backers throughout the Muslim world who stand with its fight against Israel.

Hamas is primarily backed by Iran, Israel’s arch-foe, which provides funding for weapons and training. The terrorist group has also received funding from Qatar, which also provides safe haven for Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh.

Iran, Qatar and Syria have all criticized Israel’s recent actions in the West Bank, and claimed the Jewish State brought Saturday’s violence upon itself.

Hamas also receives aid from Hezbollah, another Islamist extremist group and political party which operates in Lebanon. Hezbollah has also launched its own attacks against Israelis near the country’s northern border “in solidarity” with the terrorists.

“Our hearts are with you. Our minds are with you. Our souls are with you. Our history and guns and our rockets are with you,” Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine told Hamas on Sunday.

Israel responded with rocket fire of its own and Hezbollah later confirmed three of its members had been killed.

Why are Israel and Hamas fighting?

The main conflict which drives the bloody warfare between Israel and Hamas is both groups claim a right to Jerusalem, the holy land worshiped in Jewish, Muslim and Christian faiths.

The site holds Temple Mount, the biblical location where Abraham is said to have offered to sacrifice his son as a test of ultimate devotion to God.

Leaders in Palestine and Israel have tried to negotiate a co-occupation of the land, but potential deals brokered by global superpowers over decades have all failed. Ultimately Hamas does not believe in a peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Jews.

The terrorist organization has vowed to kill Israelis and establish a full Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital.

Hamas’ ultimate goal is to re-establish the land divisions between Jews and Muslims to where they were prior to the Six-Day War of 1967, which is when Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights, which led to the displacement of thousands of Palestinians.