How was the group able to carry out the attack? We have declared settlers are part of the occupation and part of the armed Israeli force. “We are not targeting civilians on purpose. Settlers attacked Palestinians,” Hamdan said.Īsked whether civilians in southern Israel were also considered settlers, Hamdan said: “Everyone knows there are settlements there.” “You have to differentiate between settlers and civilians. Rights groups such as Amnesty International have also pointed out that Israeli civilians had been killed by Hamas.īut Hamdan insisted that the group was attacking only settlers living in illegal settlements, whom he described as legitimate targets. Osama Hamdan, senior spokesperson for Hamas, told Al Jazeera that the group was not attacking civilians even though the group’s own videos have shown its fighters taking elderly Israelis hostage during the fighting on Saturday. Hamas also called on other groups to join the fight, saying Saturday’s attacks were just the beginning. All these things are the reason behind starting this battle,” he said. “We want the international community to stop atrocities in Gaza against Palestinian people, our holy sites like Al-Aqsa. Hamas spokesperson Khaled Qadomi told Al Jazeera that the group carried out its military operation in response to atrocities that Palestinians have faced over decades. ![]() What prompted Saturday’s attack on Israel? The relationship between the two groups has been tense when Hamas has exerted pressure on Islamic Jihad to stop attacks against Israel. ![]() Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the second-largest armed group in the region, are often united against Israel and are the most important members of the joint operations room that coordinates military activity among the various armed groups in Gaza. Hamas is part of a regional alliance that also includes Iran, Syria and the group Hezbollah in Lebanon, which opposes US policies towards the Middle East and Israel. (Al Jazeera) Who are its allies and supporters? The group as whole or in some instances its military wing is designated as a “terrorist” organisation by Israel, the United States, European Union, Canada, Egypt and Japan. It has pursued this aim through attacks on Israeli soldiers, settlers and civilians both in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Israel. It is formally committed to establishing a Palestinian state within its own borders. Hamas violently opposes the Oslo peace accords negotiated by Israel and the PLO in the mid-1990s. “We shall not waive an inch of the Palestinian home soil no matter what the recent pressures are and no matter how long the occupation,” Khaled Meshaal, the leader-in-exile of the Palestinian group said in 2017. Unlike the PLO, Hamas does not recognise Israel’s statehood but accepts a Palestinian state on 1967 borders. What are the Palestinian group’s principles? It also offered social welfare programmes to Palestinian victims of the Israeli occupation. The movement started as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and created a military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, to pursue an armed struggle against Israel with the aim of liberating historic Palestine. The Hamas movement was founded in Gaza in 1987 by an imam, Sheikh Ahmed Yasin, and his aide Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi shortly after the start of the first Intifada, an uprising against Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories. When was Hamas formed and what is its aim? Hamas has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007 after a brief war against Fatah forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The group politically controls the Gaza Strip, a territory of about 365sq km (141sq miles) that is home to more than two million people but is blockaded by Israel. ![]() Hamas stands for the Islamic Resistance Movement and in Arabic means “zeal”. ![]() So what is Hamas, the group at the centre of it all? Here is what to know: What is the group Hamas? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has launched a brutal military offensive in Gaza, killing more than 4,600 people as he promised to finish Hamas. The latest conflict has thrown a spotlight on Israel’s 16-year blockade of the Gaza Strip and its policy of settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Keep reading list of 3 items list 1 of 3 Israel-Hamas war updates: Death toll rises as Israeli jets pound Gaza list 2 of 3 Photos: Israeli strikes flatten buildings, mosques in Gaza list 3 of 3 Israel-Hamas conflict: Where it stands on day 2 after surprise attack end of list
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