The origins of Hamas lie in the First Intifada, which pitted Palestinians and Israelis between 1987 and 1993, when the Oslo Peace Accords were signed. Hamas has historically represented some of the factions most opposed to the existence of Israel and achieving any type of peace agreement with the Jewish state. Throughout these more than 30 years of history, their political influence has been increasing, as has their confrontation with Israel, which considers them a terrorist group.
When Hamas was founded in 1987, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict had been on the international scene for decades and several wars had occurred between Arab countries and Israel. Hamas was born in a context of intensifying confrontations between the Palestinian territories – occupied at that time by the Israeli State – and Israel and it did so under the parameters of being a nationalist, Islamist and jihadist group. Characteristics that differentiated it from the Palestinian resistance that until then had been the protagonist.
The term Hamas refers to the acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement and arose with inspiration from the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt, a party that opposes secular political paths. Its conception was, among others, Imam Ahmed Yassin, a mythical figure in the history of Palestine who was very critical of the process of opposition to Israel by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) led during years by the historic Yasser Arafat.
In his political current, Arafat defended ideas that linked him to socialism and pan-Arabism – very popular in the 1960s and 1970s in the Middle East region – but these positions were criticized by Yassin due to the “Western” tendencies they represented. . Yassin considered it as important to fight against Israel as to preserve sharia or Islamic law as the backbone of a future Palestinian state.
Hamas had a growing but moderate role during the First Intifada, where the recognizable figure within the Palestinian resistance was Yasser Arafat, but from the 1990s its role in Palestinian politics grew thanks to two factors: first, the creation of an armed wing called the Ezzeldin al-Qassam Brigade, and the second its frontal opposition to any type of peace agreement.
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The Oslo Peace Accords, the beginning of the growth of Hamas
This intransigent stance towards any attempt at rapprochement towards Israel began to be seen especially after the Oslo Peace Accords of 1993 between Israel and the PLO. With the mediation of the United States and former President Bill Clinton, the two sides in the conflict signed a peace that promised to lay the foundations for a possible solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The agreement stated that Israel would commit to providing autonomy and recognizing a Palestinian National Authority in exchange for vacating a good part of the Palestinian territories and for them to also recognizing the state of Israel and its right to exist.
The signing was supported by the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the Israeli Prime Minister of the time Isaac Rabin in a historic meeting that seemed to be the beginning of what could be the solution of two coexisting states. However, this was not the case and, within Palestine, Arafat’s gesture of rapprochement was taken by some sectors, especially Hamas, as something unforgivable and “a waste of time.”
Hamas refused to be part of the newly created Palestinian National Authority, created in 1994, and began a campaign of bomb attacks against Israel that caused this group to be classified as terrorist by Israel, the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. or Canada. The number of victims from these attacks was in the hundreds and caused Israeli society to adopt a more conservative and belligerent position with respect to the agreements adopted. The name of Hamas began to resonate more and more in the Middle East region and its influence among the Palestinian population increased.
The growth in Hamas’ following among Palestinians can be explained due to its more intransigent stance towards Israel and accusations of corruption and inefficiency towards the Palestinian Authority and the most important party, the historic Al Fatah.
Second Intifada and consolidation as the most important party in Palestine
With the beginning of the Second Intifada (second rebellion) at the end of 2000, the role of Hamas was already much more relevant, practically on par with that of Al Fatah, despite the fact that that party was in the Palestinian Government at that time. epoch. Although on the ground, Hamas suffered harsh defeats with the Israeli Army, with its most important leaders – Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz ar-Rantisi – dying in Israel’s special military operations, its political influence skyrocketed during this intifada.
The armed wing of Hamas experienced a notable strengthening in those years thanks, according to Israel, to collaborations with third states such as Iran or Qatar or other armed groups opposed to the Jewish state such as Hezbollah, present in southern Lebanon. These external actors have repeatedly shown their support for Hamas operations, although they have also gone so far as to deny any type of weapons aid.
The strength of Hamas began to be evident especially after 2006. Under the leadership of Ismail Haniya, the group decided to run in the legislative elections scheduled in Palestine for that year and managed to achieve a large victory that allowed them to gain a comfortable majority. absolute in the Legislature. This victory was historic, because, in a democratic way, the postulates of Hamas prevailed over those of other long-established parties such as Al Fatah or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The results were a challenge to the president of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, who had been elected to that position a year earlier, replacing Yasser Arafat, who had died in 2004. The ruling Fatah began to see Hamas as a threat to their interests and this raised tensions between the two factions to a point where both openly clashed for power in 2007.
Fatah managed to maintain its power in the West Bank region, however, its militants were expelled from the Gaza Strip, where Hamas began to fully govern. In this way, Palestinian politics, like its two territories, remained totally fractured and paralyzed for years.
This situation also began to worry Israel since, unlike Al Fatah – which believes in the two-state solution -, Hamas believes that Israel must disappear and that only one state can prevail, that of Palestine. For this reason, from that date, the Israeli authorities began to isolate the Gaza Strip and even built a wall. A situation that has degenerated into a deep humanitarian crisis among the more than two million inhabitants of the area but that has not prevented Hamas from continuing to strengthen itself militarily and posing military challenges to Israel from time to time.
Over the past few years, sporadic clashes have been growing between the two sides and Israel has even made several attempts to militarily take over the area. Likewise, bombings from both sides and military escalations have been a common factor that has further entrenched the conflict in the last 15 years, with the population as the main victim.
What seems unprecedented is an attack like the one experienced last weekend in which Hamas militants massively bombed Israel and killed hundreds of civilians. An ambush that is having serious consequences due to the military operation that Israel is now launching against Gaza.
