Hamas, an Arabic acronym for Harakat al-Muqawmah al-Islamiyyah (“zeal,” “strength” or “bravery” in Arabic or “Islamic Resistance Movement” in English), refers to a militant Sunni Islamic movement and Palestinian nationalist uprising operating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that was founded in approximately December 1987, though the exact date of Hamas’ founding is open to some level of dispute. It could be best described as a combination of a political and military organization, especially given its current de facto governance and “dominant political force” over the Gaza Strip. Gaza City is where Hamas continues to be headquartered.

The Hamas terrorist organization itself is a relatively new group to emerge in the grand scheme of the Middle East geopolitical tinderbox. However, its views arguably predate even the 1970s and could find a foothold in Islamic activism that the Muslim Brotherhood was conducting in Gaza City in the mid-1940s, or perhaps even Egypt in the 1920s. Depending on one’s perspective and analysis, the events of the 1970s seem to have most directly led to the formation of the group.

Hamas’ ideologies can be traced back to at least the late 1970s, when various individuals associated with the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood became active in the West Bank and Gaza Strip areas. Their activism for their cause started out at the time with establishing various clinics, schools, and charities, and increasing their visibility in already existing mosques in Gaza while increasing their visibility in universities, especially in the West Bank.

Some of these early activities were more in line with a mission to cater to the social welfare and charitable issues that impacted refugees and economically disadvantaged individuals. The early goals included improving the lives of everyday Palestinians living in these areas in line with socioreligious Islamic values, especially after the 1967 Yom Kippur War devastated the region.

Originally, many of these activities were relatively benign, non-violent, and peaceful. However, there were a few rogue individuals and fringe elements associated with these activities who were more radical in their sentiments, operating in collaboration with other groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood (a Muslim political and social movement based out of Egypt) and some other religious factions, who went beyond benevolent charitable initiatives and openly called for jihad (“holy war”) against Israel.

Hamas, as we have come to know it, was founded over the course of the 1980s by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a charismatic refugee quadriplegic deemed the movement’s spiritual leader, along with the Palestinian imam. It is not that Yassin was not involved in similar activities in years prior to this, but this is the time the group is believed to have become official. Thus, the group morphed from more of a socioeconomic group to a political-military entity.

In December 1987, following a situation where an Israeli army truck crashed at a Gaza checkpoint, killing some Palestinian workers who were at the site of the crash, some of Yassin’s supporters gathered at his house to discuss their response. From this meeting, the group known as Hamas emerged as a fringe element of these earlier activities dating back to the 1970s, though the name “Hamas” was not used until later in 1988.  As a response to the Gaza checkpoint incident Yassin and his supporters started an uprising, which caused the intifada.

The grievances were deeper than merely this crash at the checkpoint, though that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The Palestinian intifada ignited because of more deeply rooted perceptions of Israeli occupation of lands deemed to be under Palestinian control (Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem), which was unacceptable from the perspective of Yassin and his followers.

This terrorist group was founded on the premises of political Islamic opposition to the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s approach to tensions with Israel (which in 1988 did indeed hold the view that Israel has a right to exist, which Hamas found problematic) and the possibility that any portion of the land deemed to be Palestine might be granted to Israel as part of any agreement or defeat in battle, which was untenable from Hamas’ perspective.

Hamas believed from its inception that Palestine was to be a homeland for the Islamic people and that under no circumstances could Palestine fall to non-Muslims. Based on the group’s charter, Israel has no right to exist, the land must be maintained under Islamic Palestinian control, and all agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization must be resisted and defeated. Using that understanding, followers of Hamas, from their perspective, have a type of moral and religious duty to Islam to fight for control of Palestine lest it fall to Israel.

The group was later blessed by the Muslim Brotherhood of Jordan in early 1988, though the group was technically separate from the Muslim Brotherhood because the Muslim Brotherhood did not want to participate in violence against Israel, whereas Hamas did.

In August of 1988, Hamas issued the Islamic Covenant. This statement vehemently opposed Israel’s existence in any form and vowed that any actions by Hamas would align with a Palestinian state that denied Israel’s existence on the map. The covenant stated that jihad was the only acceptable form of action for eradicating Israel from existence. Jihad was to be conducted not only by the Muslims of Palestine but ideally by Muslims of the entire world.

Because this position was bolder than that of other Palestinian organizations, Hamas became increasingly radical and independent over the years, even creating tensions between itself and other Palestinian groups and even secular groups that believed in Palestinian nationalism. Hamas has since sought to distance itself from the Muslim Brotherhood even further, despite the involvement of the group in Hamas’ original inception.

Hamas, as early as 1989, started attacking various military and civilian targets in the West Bank and Gaza. These activities led to Israel arresting several members of the Hamas movement, including the aforementioned founder of the group. After these early arrests, Hamas restructured its movement and largely went rogue and underground in an effort to evade capture and infiltration by Israel, even establishing some of its international relations, fundraising, and other key operations in Amman, Jordan, to try to evade Israel.

Iranian support for Hamas may have officially begun in 1992, including smuggling various weapons to Hamas since then. Iran started funding Hamas in early 1990 and has continued to fund Hamas on the order of upwards of $50 million a year. Hezbollah trained Hamas in its early years on how to actually build suicide bombs; Hamas used this training to conduct its first suicide bombing in 1993, merely months before the Oslo Accords. The Palestinian Liberation Organization responded with security measures and various sanctions.

During this time, there was also a paramilitary wing of Hamas established known as the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades that caused disruption and mayhem throughout Israel and the disputed Palestinian territories. Besides suicide bombings being implemented for the first time, there were already regularly occurring bombings, rocket and small arms attacks, various roadside explosives, and other violence perpetuated against Israeli civilians. Izz al-Din al-Qassim Brigades is still in existence, as in 2015 they issued some videos showing off some of the new tunnels they built to conduct terror operations from, to which the United States responded by issuing some funds to contribute to Israel’s anti-tunneling technology.

Meanwhile, Jordan kicked Hamas out of Amman in 1999, not wanting Jordanian land to be used as an outpost for conducting military operations in disputed Palestinian lands. After a brief period of reorganization and, in the interim, facilitating much violence over failed peace talks between Israel and Palestine in 2000 (the Aqsa intifada), the political arm of Hamas relocated to Damascus, Syria, in 2001. This was not a permanent move either, as Hamas would later relocate to Doha. In 2012, relations with the Assad administration made it difficult for Hamas to maintain its operations within Syria. Currently, the group operates in a decentralized format, with leaders living in exile and local groups managing some of the grassroots operations in different communities.

Following the Aqsa intifada, Hamas decided that perhaps some of its views were a bit too radical and that perhaps peace between Israel and Palestine was not a totally awful concept. Therefore, in 2006, Hamas began to cooperate with the Palestinian Authority and participate in the Palestinian legislative elections, openly voicing that they might even accept some kind of peace offering between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in order to participate in said elections.

Whereas Hamas at its inception would have been vehemently against the two-state solution, it is about this time that the group started showing some interest in some concept of a two-state solution to try to appear more moderate and cooperative. Hamas’ version of the two-state solution still denied Israel’s right to existence, however. This view was even codified in a Document of General Principles and Policies issued in 2017. However, this solution was not going to go over well with Israel, and the violence has only continued over the years.

Hamas was successful in its pursuit of governmental power in 2006, ousting the secular Fatah party not only from governance but as the perceived leader of the overall Palestinian nationalist movement. Victory in the 2006 elections granted Hamas political control of the Gaza Strip, as well as a majority of the Palestinian Legislative Council, in 2007. The election was primarily won on the platform of providing social and charitable services to people largely living in poverty, as well as ousting the Fatah Party. The Fatah Party had been facing a decline in support for many years already due to voters perceiving corruption and the Fatah Party representatives doing little legislatively to benefit the daily lives of the Palestinian people, especially when it came to relations with Israel.

There have been no elections since 2006, with Hamas maintaining all political power over the area since then, indefinitely postponing elections. There is no sign that elections will happen anytime soon. Hamas established a judiciary upon coming to power and has since ruled in accordance with sharia-based Palestinian basic law, arguably a more aggressive and harsh form of said law. There has been much debate about how much political power Hamas really has had, whether in the 1990s or even after it gained political power in 2006.

In response to this transfer of power, Israel wasted no time in deeming the Gaza Strip, ruled by Hamas, to be a hostile entity threatening the existence of Israel. Israel implemented several sanctions, which included such things as controlling the power supply, limiting imports, and controlling the border between Gaza and the outside world. This was seemingly justified as Hamas continued its reign of terror on Israel during these years after it gained political power in the Gaza Strip.

There have been some attempts at truces and ceasefires between Israel and Hamas since then, but these have been largely unsuccessful. Both sides accused the other of not being faithful to the agreements they attempted to implement. Violence between the parties has only continued to spiral, especially in response to certain provocative events over the years.

After some disputes in 2008, Hamas refused to denounce certain violent activities. This led to the United States government designating Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization at that time.

In 2012, an attempt at a ceasefire failed as Israel agreed to certain things, and yet Hamas took the opportunity to declare victory in getting what it wanted. Thus, clashes have continued between Hamas and Israel to this day. Some of the conflict has switched over to cyberwarfare rather than physical warfare due to Israel’s increasing proficiency in thwarting physical attacks.

Though a 2018 attempt to get the United Nations to condemn Hamas for “acts of terror” failed, many academics and countries deem Hamas to be a terrorist organization. Some countries only limit this designation to Hamas’ military arm, however.

Hamas does not garner financial support from the United States or the European Union. Most of Hamas’ funding today comes from Palestinian expatriates, various private donors throughout the Persian Gulf, Islamic charities, tax revenue on goods moved through the tunnels during the years of blockade, and the governments of Iran and Turkey.

Disclaimer: This article is by no means an in-depth analysis of the history between Hamas and Israel or even a complete history of Hamas. There are many aspects of Hamas and Hamas-Israel relations where multiple articles could be written dissecting what has gone down over the years, involving much complex analysis of politics, history, religion, culture, and socioeconomic issues. This article is solely intended as an overview of Hamas’ history and position in the geopolitical scene in light of current events.