In one of the most significant escalation of the Israel-Palestinian conflict in years, the Palestinian faction Hamas launched a surprise incursion from Gaza into Israel.
According to Al Jazeera, at least 40 Israelis were murdered and hundreds were injured in “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” by pounding southern Israel with over 5,000 rocket barrages.
What is Hamas?
The Islamic Resistance Movement was established in 1987, at the height of the first Palestinian Intifada.
It adheres to the same interpretation of Islam as the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt in the 1920s.
After a brief civil war with troops allied to the Fatah movement led by President Mahmoud Abbas, who is located in the West Bank and also serves as the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), it has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007.
Following its victory in the last parliamentary elections for Palestine, conducted in 2006, Hamas seized control of Gaza. Abbas was charged by Hamas with plotting against it. Abbas called what transpired a coup.
Since then, there have been several escalations of hostilities with Israel, frequently involving rocket fire from Gaza by Hamas on Israeli territory as well as Israeli airstrikes and Gaza bombing.
The Oslo peace accords, which Israel and the PLO negotiated in the middle of the 1990s, were rejected by Hamas, which refuses to acknowledge Israel.
The Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades are an arm of this organization. It describes its use of force as resistance against Israeli occupation.
Hamas officials have occasionally proposed a long-term cease-fire, or Hudna in Arabic, with Israel in exchange for a functional Palestinian state on all Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war, despite the fact that its founding charter from 1988 called for the annihilation of Israel.
Hamas is a member of a regional coalition that also includes Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. This coalition broadly opposes US Middle East policy as well as Israeli policies.
Despite having its headquarters in Gaza, Hamas has sympathisers throughout the Palestinian Territories and leaders in other Middle Eastern nations, including Qatar.
