![\"Hamas\"](\"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Hamas-Flag-copy.jpg\")
<\/a>Hamas<\/p><\/div>
\nHamas, meaning \u201centhusiasm\u201d is an acronym of Harakat al-muqwamah al-Islamiyyah or the Islamic Resistance Movement. Hamas was founded during the First Intifada (1987-1991), which was the first uprising of the Palestinian people against Israel post 1967, after the war that led to the transfer of the West Bank and the Gaza strip to Israeli control. However, it must be made clear that when Israel captured these territories they were not independent Palestinian States. The West Bank had been annexed by Jordan after the 1948 war and all residents there were granted Jordanian citizenship. The Gaza strip was annexed by Egypt in 1949, although its residents held a refugee status in Egypt and were never integrated into Egyptian society. When Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979, Israel actually offered to return the Gaza strip to Egypt; the Egyptians refused not wanting to take responsibility for that burden. Jordan maintained its claim over the West Bank until 1988, when it finally formally \u201cwithdrew\u201d its right over the territory after conceding to the Palestinian people\u2019s demand for independence, voiced through the Intifada. <\/p>\n
Hamas has officially been recognized as a terrorist organization by the United States and other nations and the organization was created as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement. Hamas\u2019s charter states that it was founded to: <\/p>\n
1. Liberate Palestine from Israeli occupation (Palestine is defined by Hamas as not only the West Bank and Gaza but all of Israel as well) <\/p>\n
and to <\/p>\n
2. Establish an Islamic state in this territory<\/p>\n
Therefore, peace talks between Hamas and Israel would lack any purpose since Hamas does not recognize Israel\u2019s right to exist and dedicates itself to the destruction of Israel\u2019s existence. This is why ceasefires are usually the best the international community can broker during times of war between Hamas and Israel. In July 2009, going against Hama\u2019s charter, Khaled Meshal, Hamas\u2019s politician bureau chief declared that Hamas would be willing to cooperate with a \u201cresolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict that included a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders\u201d if Palestinian refugees received the right to return to Israel and if East Jerusalem was the capital of the Palestinian state. Whether Hamas was serious about this cooperation has been a matter of speculation since it is well known by Hamas and by the world at large that Israel will never allow a Palestinian right of return. Recanting this 2009 statement just this past year, Mousa Mohammad Abu Marzook, the deputy chairman of Hamas\u2019s political bureau, declared \u201cHamas will not recognize Israel\u201d and this \u201cis a redline that cannot be crossed.\u201d Also, in the years following 2009, Hamas has doubled its efforts building smuggling tunnels, launching rockets at Israeli civilian targets, and preparing for an all out war with Israel. <\/p>\n
How Did Hamas Gain Control of Gaza?<\/p>\n
Hamas gained sole control of the Gaza strip shortly after winning the January 2006 Palestinian Parliamentary elections, defeating Fatah, associated with the PLO. As a response to these elections, the Quartet (the United States, Russia, the United Nations, and the European Union) issued a statement declaring that all future assistance to the Palestinian Authority would be conditioned on the government\u2019s commitment to non-violence, the recognition of the State of Israel, and the acceptance of previous agreements. Hamas refused these conditions and the Quartet suspended its foreign assistance program. <\/p>\n
After many months of tension within the Palestinian Parliament, the Palestinians formed a national unity government in March 2007 headed by Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas. This cooperation did not last long and tensions over the control of the Palestinian security forces exploded, leading to an all out war between Hamas and Fatah. This conflict is known as the 2007 Battle of Gaza. The end of this fighting resulted in Hamas\u2019s sole control over Gaza, with Fatah ruling in the West Bank, essentially dividing the Palestinian people and territory. <\/p>\n
Hamas at this time began indiscriminate rocket fire on civilian populations within Israel and Israel, along with Egypt, imposed economic sanctions on Hamas with the aim of limiting the import into Gaza weapons and any supplies that could be made into weapons. Hamas has found many ways around this blockade, including the construction of tunnels in and out of the Gaza into Egypt. This current conflict has also uncovered many tunnels from Gaza into Israel, tunnels designed to facilitate Hamas attacks on Israelis in Israel. <\/p>\n
Rocket fire from Gaza into Israel has been constant since 2007 and has led to major all out battles between Hamas and Israel in 2008, 2012 and now again in 2014. The Palestinian people of Gaza have become hostages in this territory, trapped on the frontline of these battles between Hamas and Israel, left with no escape as a result of the sanctions imposed upon Gaza by Israel and Egypt. However, despite the hostilities Hamas forces upon its people and the fact that it uses its own people as human shields during these conflicts, the political arm of the organization maintains a high level of popularity among Gazans because of its social welfare programs including its funding of schools, mosques, healthcare clinics, sports leagues, orphanages and soup kitchens. <\/p>\n
The ground offensive by the Israeli army into Gaza has already begun with the objective to stop the rocket fire by Hamas and to destroy Hamas\u2019s tunnel system used to smuggle in rockets and other weapons. The world is eager to negotiate a new ceasefire, but at this time no one is talking. <\/p>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Nicole Sivan Hamas, meaning \u201centhusiasm\u201d is an acronym of Harakat al-muqwamah al-Islamiyyah or the Islamic Resistance Movement. Hamas was founded during the First Intifada (1987-1991), which was the first uprising of the Palestinian people against Israel post 1967, after the war that led to the transfer of the West Bank and the Gaza strip more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[298,114,625,125,295,299],"class_list":{"0":"post-1862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israeli-news","8":"tag-gaza-war","9":"tag-hamas","10":"tag-israeli-news","11":"tag-news-from-jerusalem","12":"tag-operation-protective-edge","13":"tag-rocket-attack","14":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1864,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862\/revisions\/1864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}