Hamas

Hamas (an Arabic acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya — Islamic Resistance Movement) was founded in December 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a paraplegic cleric, and his associates during the outbreak of the First Palestinian Intifada. It emerged directly from the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which had been operating in Gaza since the 1950s building schools, mosques, and social welfare institutions — the same grassroots infiltration strategy employed globally by the Brotherhood.

From its founding, Hamas explicitly rejected the possibility of a negotiated two-state solution. Its original 1988 charter called for the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic state across all of historic Palestine, citing the antisemitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as evidence of a global Jewish conspiracy. A revised charter in 2017 softened some language but maintained the fundamental rejection of Israel's right to exist and explicitly endorsed continued armed struggle.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Hamas conducted a systematic campaign of suicide bombings targeting Israeli buses, markets, restaurants, and discotheques — killing hundreds of Israeli civilians and derailing multiple peace processes. It positioned itself as the hardline alternative to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, capitalising on public frustration with the Oslo process.

In January 2006, Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections — a result that stunned Western governments and the PA alike. Rather than governing in coalition, Hamas used its electoral mandate to consolidate power, and in June 2007 launched a violent coup against Fatah forces in Gaza, executing rivals, throwing prisoners from rooftops, and establishing sole control over the territory's 2.3 million inhabitants. Gaza has been under Hamas governance ever since.

Hamas's ideology fuses Palestinian nationalism with Islamism — specifically the Muslim Brotherhood's vision of a society governed by Sharia — resulting in an explicitly religious framework for what it describes as "resistance." Unlike secular Palestinian nationalist movements, Hamas frames the conflict with Israel not as a territorial or political dispute but as a religious obligation: a jihad that all Muslims are duty-bound to support.

The organisation's foundational position is the total non-recognition of Israel's legitimacy in any borders. Hamas has consistently rejected, sabotaged, or undermined every negotiated framework — from Oslo to the Abraham Accords — that moved toward a two-state solution, on the grounds that no Muslim land may ever be permanently ceded to non-Muslims.

Hamas's social ideology mirrors the Muslim Brotherhood's authoritarian Islamism. In Gaza, it has enforced dress codes for women, suppressed LGBT individuals, restricted freedom of the press, banned political opposition, and executed collaborators — often in public. It has consistently used Gaza's civilian population as a strategic asset, embedding military infrastructure — tunnels, rocket launchers, weapons caches — beneath hospitals, schools, mosques, and residential blocks.

Hamas's political bureau, headquartered in Doha with Qatari government protection, maintains a deliberately separate public posture from its military wing — the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades — allowing it to conduct diplomatic engagement while directing terrorism. This duality has complicated international efforts to isolate the organisation and allowed sympathetic governments to maintain contact.

In the early hours of 7 October 2023 — the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah — approximately 3,000 Hamas fighters and affiliated militants breached the Gaza security fence at multiple points and poured into southern Israel. What followed was the largest mass killing of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust.

Kibbutz massacres: Hamas fighters systematically moved through kibbutzim — small agricultural communities — executing entire families in their homes and shelters. In Kibbutz Be'eri, approximately 100 of the community's 1,100 residents were killed. In Kfar Aza, entire families were found shot, burned, or beheaded. Infants were among the dead.

Nova Music Festival: Hamas attacked the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re'im, where approximately 3,500 young people had gathered. At least 364 festival-goers were massacred. Hundreds attempted to flee across open fields and were shot from vehicles or captured. Systematic sexual violence was carried out against women at the festival; UN investigators subsequently confirmed rape, gang rape, and sexual mutilation as deliberate tactics.

Hostages: 251 people — including infants, children, elderly individuals, and foreign nationals from over 30 countries — were taken into Gaza as hostages. They were held in Hamas's tunnel network beneath civilian areas. Many were subjected to abuse, deprivation, and sexual violence during captivity. Over a year after the attack, dozens remained in captivity.

Documentation: Hamas fighters themselves filmed the atrocities on body cameras and mobile phones, uploading footage in real time. This documentation — reviewed by governments, journalists, and UN investigators — has provided unambiguous evidence of systematic, premeditated war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Hamas's violence primarily targets Israeli and Jewish communities but its governance of Gaza and regional activities impact a broader range of populations documented across IFC desks.