From BBC
Who are Hamas?
In January 2006, Hamas translated its widespread popularity among Palestinians into a dramatic win in the Parliamentary elections.
Its new-found political status did not make it any less controversial, however.
Branded a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU, it is seen by its supporters as a legitimate fighting force defending Palestinians from a brutal military occupation.
It is the largest Palestinian militant Islamist organisation, formed in 1987 at the beginning of the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israel's occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.
The group's short-term aim has been to drive Israeli forces from the occupied territories. To achieve this it has launched attacks on Israeli troops and settlers in the Palestinian territories and against civilians in Israel.
It also has a long-term aim of establishing an Islamic state on all of historic Palestine - most of which has been contained within Israel's borders since its creation in 1948.
Before coming to power in 2006, Hamas was divided into two main spheres of operation:
social programmes like building schools, hospitals and religious institutions
militant operations carried out by Hamas' underground Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
It also had a political branch in exile, formerly in Jordan - where one of its leaders, Khalid Meshaal, was the target of a bungled Israeli assassination attempt in 1997.
King Hussein was outraged by Israel's action and was only placated when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu released Hamas's jailed spiritual leader and founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
While King Hussein tolerated Hamas's presence, his successor, King Abdullah II had the group's headquarters closed down and senior figures expelled to Qatar.
Veto power
Hamas came to prominence after the first intifada as the main Palestinian opponent of the Oslo accords - the US-sponsored peace process that oversaw the gradual and partial removal of Israel's occupation in return for Palestinian guarantees to protect Israeli security.
Despite numerous Israeli operations against it and clampdowns by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian National Authority, Hamas found it had an effective power of veto over the process by launching suicide attacks.
In February and March 1996, it carried out several suicide bus bombings, killing nearly 60 Israelis, in retaliation for the assassination in December 1995 of Hamas bomb maker Yahya Ayyash.
The bombings were widely blamed for turning Israelis off the peace process and bringing about the election of right-winger Mr Netanyahu who was a staunch opponent of the Oslo accords.
In the post-Oslo world, most particularly following the failure of US President Bill Clinton's Camp David summit in the summer of 2000 and the second intifada which followed shortly thereafter, Hamas gained power and influence as Israel steadily destroyed the infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority.
In towns and refugee camps besieged by the Israeli army, Hamas organised clinics and schools which served Palestinians who felt entirely let down by the corrupt and inefficient Palestinian Authority dominated by its secularist rival, Fatah.
The armed struggle
Many Palestinians cheered the wave of Hamas suicide attacks (and those of fellow militants Islamic Jihad and the secular al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade) in the first years of the intifada.
They saw "martyrdom" operations as the best way to avenge their own losses and counter Israel's unchecked settlement building in the West Bank.
After the death of Fatah leader Yasser Arafat in 2004, the Palestinian Authority was taken over by Mahmoud Abbas, a vocal opponent of attacks on Israel.
He viewed Hamas rocket fire, the militants' weapon of choice in recent years, as counterproductive, inflicting little damage on Israel but provoking a harsh response by the Israeli military.
Mr Abbas's efforts, with Egyptian help and mediation, resulted in a militant ceasefire in early 2005, which has largely held, interrupted only by what Hamas deems to be retaliatory attacks for Israeli violations.
The group says it will never sign up to a permanent ceasefire while Israel occupies Palestinian territory and its troops are responsible for the deaths of Palestinians.
It has, however, offered a 10-year truce in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories: the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
But it has not relinquished its assertion that Palestinian refugees from 1948 should be allowed to return to homes in what has become Israel - a move that threatens Israel's very existence as a Jewish state.
Assassinations
As well as inflicting by far the most casualties on Israelis - with attacks generally better-planned and executed than those of other militant groups - Hamas has lost many members in Israeli assassinations and security sweeps.
The wheelchair-bound Sheikh Yassin was killed in a missile attack on 22 March 2004.
Khaled Meshaal, now based in Syria, became the group's overall leader. Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi emerged as Hamas leader in Gaza before he too was assassinated six weeks later on 17 April.
Other prominent Hamas officials killed by the Israelis include Ismail Abu Shanab, in August 2003, and Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades leader Salah Shehada, in July 2002.
Shehada's successor, Mohammad Deif - whom Israel blames for the 1996 bombings - has escaped several attempts on his life.
More moderate political figures also emerged as significant players within the movement.
One of them was Ismail Haniya, a former aide to Sheikh Yassin, who was appointed to a "collective leadership" in the occupied territories along with the more hardline Mahmoud Zahhar and Said al-Siyam.
Facing the electorate
Hamas's decision to stand in Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 was a major departure for the movement and has had a profound impact on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Top figures said the move reflected Hamas's importance in the Palestinian sphere and the need for it to address failing political structures beset by corruption, inefficiency and lost credibility.
It did not, they insisted, imply any acceptance of a two-state solution to the conflict, although Hamas opposition to the Oslo accords had kept it out of previous elections.
Aside from its much-vaunted incorruptibility, Hamas campaigned forcefully on its claim that Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in the summer of 2005 was a victory for its commitment to armed conflict with the Israelis.
But life in government has proved a hard challenge - for Hamas and for the long-suffering Palestinian people reaping the result of their choice at the ballot box.
The government has been subject to economic and diplomatic sanctions by Israel and its allies in the West.
The embargo will remain, they say, until a Palestinian government is formed that is committed to past peace deals signed with Israel and which recognises Israel's right to exist - demands Hamas has been unwilling to accept.
Meanwhile, a new danger has arisen on the Palestinian streets, inter-factional rivalry and a violent power struggle between Hamas and Fatah.
In the last months of 2006, more Palestinians died in that conflict than at the hands of the Israeli army.
Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Who are Hamas?
Published: 2007/01/25 14:27:27 GMT
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Who are Hamas
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