The Islamic organization Hamas has accepted some important points of Trump's plan to end the war, transfer power to Gaza and release Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Crucial talks are expected in Cairo, where it seems that - in addition to Israeli-Arab negotiators and Hamas representatives - Trump's special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and the US president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will also be present.
In this article we will try to outline the historical path of this organization: What it is, how it was created, what its leadership and ideology are. A path that led it to the horrific terrorist attack against Israel, on October 7, 2023. So we have and say:
Hamas in Arabic means zeal or courage and is the acronym for Harakat Al Muqawima Al Islamiyya, or Islamic Resistance Movement. Hamas was founded on December 15, 1987, in Gaza, immediately after the start of the first Intifada (1987-1992). The second Palestinian Intifada began in September 2000 and essentially ended in 2005. Since then, we have had many wars with Israel, almost every two years, with hundreds
It was founded as the armed wing of the Islamic Fundamentalist Movement of the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan al-Muslimin), which had been founded in Gaza in 1946. The founders of Hamas were: Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, its historical spiritual leader, who was killed in 2004 by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, Abd al-Fattah Dukhan, Muhammed Shama, Ibrahim al-Yazuri, Issa al-Najjar, Salah Shehadeh and Abd al-Aziz Rantisi.
Hamas's motto is that "God is its goal, the Prophet is its model, the Quran is its Constitution, Jihad (Holy War) is its path, and death in the name of God is its highest desire."
Ismail Haniyeh
Hamas historically rejects "any contact with Israel, the so-called peace processes and international conferences, as incapable of delivering justice or restoring the rights of the oppressed, and believes that the solution to the Palestinian issue exists only through continuous and uncompromising armed resistance and confrontation (Jihad) with the "Zionists", who must be expelled from the holy land of Palestine".
Hamas considers the land of Palestine, which includes all of present-day Israel, excluding the Golan Heights (which belong to Syria and were occupied by Israel in 1967), to be the Islamic homeland, a holy land for future generations of Muslims until the Day of Judgment, which can never be handed over to non-Muslims. It claims that Jihad to liberate Palestine from Israel, the occupier of this land, is a religious duty for every Muslim (not just Palestinians) and to eliminate the state of Israel. In fact, Hamas not only does not recognize Israel as a sovereign state, but refers to it in its 1988 declaration as a “Zionist entity.”
Hamas is a militant organization but at the same time a mass social, political and religious movement structured in three wings. The first wing is the political wing headed until 2005 by the executed Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, who deals with the political line of the movement, the production of information leaflets, the finding of financial resources (a major financier is Saudi Arabia and now Iran), the organization and operation of charitable organizations, the building of schools, mosques, hospitals and generally with charities and social programs.
Since 2017, the political leader of Hamas has been Ismail Haniyeh, an extremely controversial figure and a fierce opponent of President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority. On July 31, 2024, Israel killed him in an airstrike in Tehran. He was the most important Hamas political leader killed by the Israelis. This was followed by the killing of his successor, Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October terrorist attack, who was killed fighting in Gaza, with a shocking video recording his last moments:
The second wing is the intelligence service, known as Al – Majd (Glory), which in addition to internal policing duties in Gaza carried out (and still carries out) the neutralizations (executions) of Palestinian “collaborators” with Israel, as well as another “moral” security service, which pursues those who violate Islamic law. The third wing is the operational one, with the well-known Izz al-Dim al-Qassam Brigades, in memory of the said sheikh, the father of modern Arab resistance who was killed by the British in 1935.
The information suggests that the armed wing of the organization has serious objections to the agreement, which has been accepted by its political branch. It should be noted that the armed wing is the one fighting in Gaza, while the political leadership resides abroad. One of the “thorns” of the Trump plan It seems to be the disarmament of the organization. And the members of the armed wing have many reasons to ask for additional guarantees for their security, fearing that in the future they will find themselves in Israel's sights.
Suicide attacks
The Izz Al-Dim Al-Qassam Brigades are responsible for many suicide attacks with their Shahid (martyrs) inside Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and for many other actions, which some call terrorist and others acts of resistance, depending on which angle one looks at the events, as well as who the targets are. For example, if the target is civilians, innocent women and children, etc. then we consider it a terrorist act, while if it is military armed units then it is an act of resistance.
Until 2004, Hamas' power was limited almost exclusively to the Gaza Strip, where it had absolute control over law and order and security. In May 2005, Hamas won over 1/3 of the municipal councils in Gaza and the West Bank, effectively taking control from Fatah, sending a message for future political developments. Developments that changed the scene in the region, when, as mentioned above, in January 2006 they won the elections and took over the governance of the Palestinian Authority...
The Hamas-PLO triangle and Arab states
Hamas receives donations from many Arab states and especially the Gulf states, from private donors and Muslim charities in Saudi Arabia, from Palestinian exiles, and even from American donors. This money is used for its charitable and not only work, i.e. in addition to its various needs and the execution of its charitable activities and for the purchase of weapons, explosives and ammunition.
Syria was the key center of Hamas operations, and the Assad regime continued to provide support and protection to various Hamas leaders until the outbreak of the Syrian civil war. As Hamas supported the overthrow of Assad, its leaders were forced to find refuge in Turkey and especially in Qatar, which is also its major financier. It should be noted that Arafat and Fatah's relations with the Syrian regime were relations of hatred, and Arafat did not go to Damascus, neither under Hafez Assad, nor under his son, Bashar, the president of Syria. In addition, Qatar and Turkey are calling on Hamas to accept the Trump plan.
Hamas had differentiated itself in many ways from the PLO and later Yasser Arafat's Fatah. Unlike Arafat, it did not support Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and of course did not agree with the Oslo Accords and was one of the main exponents of the refusal to have any contact with Israel. The organization's goal is "to raise the banner of God in every corner of Palestine and to eliminate the Zionist entity (i.e. Israel) and any other popular Palestinian state that may be established and replace it with an Islamic Republic," as clearly stated in its 1988 Declaration.
The first suicide attack against Israel took place in 1993 in Tel Aviv, as an act of opposition to the Oslo treaty. With the start of the second Intifada, the so-called Al-Aqsa Intifada, Hamas, in practice its Brigades, actively participated alone, but also in cooperation with Fatah's Al-Aqsa Brigades, in most bombings and suicide attacks against Israel, with dozens dead and hundreds injured.
Israel sentenced Hamas leaders to death and began a campaign of selective executions of Palestinian leaders involved in bombings and other forms of violence against Israel. Hamas's popularity grew rapidly, especially in Gaza, after the execution on 22 March 2004 by the Israeli air force of its spiritual leader and one of the founders of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. The new leader of Hamas, Abdel Radisi, was also executed by the Israeli air force, a month after taking over the leadership.
After Arafat
After the death of Yasser Arafat, president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) was elected in early 2005, taking over the leadership of Fatah and the PLO. Then all the Palestinian organizations, including Hamas, participated in March 2005 in the Cairo Conference, where it was decided to ¨Tahadiyeh¨, i.e. the suspension of attacks against Israel, since they saw the impasse of the struggle.
Indeed, after this conference, suicide bombings against Israel were drastically reduced (almost zero) and hopes for the resumption of peace processes were rekindled. The decision by then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to unilaterally and definitively withdraw from the Gaza Strip and the delicate, unprecedented and paradoxical operation of removing 7.500 Israeli settlers, even by force, from Gaza by the Israeli army in August 2005; raised further hopes for better prospects in Palestine.
The rise of Hamas
After these developments, Hamas decided to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections of the Palestinian Authority in January 2006, where, making a big surprise and throwing all polls into the trash, it won the elections. Thus the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, entrusted the formation of the government to Hamas, which was sworn in at the end of March 2006, with Ismail Haniyeh as prime minister. The cooperation between the two men, President Abbas and Prime Minister Haniyeh, started with good prospects, but along the way the great differences of opinion on national issues and the policy pursued appeared.
The moderate President Abbas was the only acceptable representative of the Palestinian side and a permanent interlocutor with Israel, the US, the EU and the international community in general, while Hamas was not recognized and remained on the sidelines, excluded and isolated, not taking a single step back from its intransigent positions and views...
Ground zero for the organization was of course the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, which caused terrifying consequences for Gaza and the Arab world, which, as it turned out, even the organization itself was unable to manage. It apparently estimated that the situation would change to its advantage. map of the Middle East, something that is not confirmed at all, based on the latest developments...
https://slpress.gr/diethni/to-who-is-who-tis-xamas/
photo By Hamas – White Banner Template.svg:Yellow Sword Template.svg:Palestinian Banner Template.svg:, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=148313845 - https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/
