Hamas

Islamic fundamentalist organization formally founded by Sheikh Yassin Ahmed in 1988. Its militant wing, the Izzedine Al Qassam Brigades, played a major role in the Intifada, the Palestinian uprising in the Israeli-occupied territories from 1987, particularly in the economically deprived Gaza Strip, the Hamas heartland. Responsible for attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians and for suicide bombings, the group gained a reputation for ruthlessness and unpredictability. A radical ‘rejectionist’ group, which opposes negotiations with Israel by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and does not recognize the right of Israel to exist, it rejects the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords which led to the establishment of the Palestine National Authority and its campaign of violence within Israel has been aimed at disrupting the Israel–Palestine peace process. The short-term aim of Hamas is a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territories and its long-term goal is the establishment of an Islamic state on the land of Palestine. Hamas also has a social role, running hospitals and schools.

Impatient with the PLO's prolonged efforts to free the occupied territories by diplomatic means, in November 1992 Hamas formed an alliance with Iran for support in the continuation of the Intifada. In December 1992, 415 Palestinians suspected of having links with Hamas were expelled from Israel into Lebanon. Refused refugee status by Lebanon and neighbouring Arab states, they remained for six months in a desert camp until international condemnation of the deportations forced Israel to agree to their return.

Al Qassam claimed responsibility for two bomb attacks in Israel in April 1994, in which 12 civilians died, and for further bombings in Tel Aviv-Yafo in October 1994 and July 1995, in which a total of 26 civilians died. All were carried out by suicide bombers. A series of four bus bomb attacks between January and March 1996, claiming 60 Israeli lives, followed the death of one of the movement's leading operatives, Yahya Ayyash, known as ‘The Engineer’. He was killed by a booby-trapped cellular telephone, and Israel's Shin Bet intelligence service was alleged to have been involved. The attacks, in Jerusalem, Ashkelon, and Tel Aviv-Yafo, disrupted the peace process.

In 1989 Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was arrested by the Israelis and sentenced to life imprisonment for ordering the killing of Palestinians who had allegedly collaborated with the Israeli army. However, he was released in 1997 in response to Jordanian pressure after Israel's intelligence service, Mossad, failed in an assassination attempt on another Hamas leader, Khalid Mashaal, living in Jordan.

In late 1994, there were violent clashes between supporters of Hamas and Palestinian police in the newly liberated Gaza Strip. However, following an agreement to end Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories in September 1995, Hamas was unexpectedly invited to discuss self-rule arrangements with the PLO. Hamas refused to participate in the January 1996 elections to the new Palestinian Legislative Council.

Hamas had been allowed to operate in Jordan by King Hussein, as it gave him leverage over Yassir Arafat. However, his successor, King Abdullah, closed their Amman offices in August 1999 and senior figures were expelled to Qatar. In September 1999, three Hamas leaders, including Mashaal, were arrested when they returned from Iran to Jordan. The men, Jordanian citizens, were accused of gathering security-related information on Jordan, training militant cadres, and stockpiling caches of arms. The Hamas men denied the charges.

Hamas has been active in the new Intifada that broke out in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in September 2000, and its support among Palestinians has increased significantly. Israel reacted by targeting its key members for assassination, killing Jamal Mansour, its leader in the West Bank, at Nablus in July 2001. Mansour was believed to have masterminded the June 2001 Hamas suicide bombings of a Tel Aviv-Yafo discotheque, in which 21 Israelis were killed.