A war broke out between the Hamas led Palestinian militant groups and Israeli military forces on October 7, 2023. Israeli military forces started operating retaliatory strikes prior the Israeli government officially declared a war on Hamas.
Hamas, formation and ideology
Hamas is the acronym of Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah, also known in English as Islamic Resistance Movement. It was founded in 1987, the Hamas countered the secular system of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They rejected to yield any part of Palestine and started the act of violence including terrorism to achieve its goals.
Since the late 1970s, many protesters with Islamist Muslim Brotherhood created a network of clinics, charities, schools and also became active in the territories of the Gaza Strip and West Bank which was once occupied by Israel after the six-day war in 1967. In Gaza and West Bank, the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities were not so violent, but there were some small groups in some territories who started to call for jihad against Israel. In 1988, Hamas stated that Palestine is Islamic native soil which can never be surrendered to any non-muslims and to prosecute a holy war to seize the control of Palestine from Israel is a sacred duty for the Palestinian Muslims. These conditions brought conflict with the PLO.
Hamas began to act individually from other Palestinian organizations creating antagonismbetween the group and the secular nationalist counterparts. Increase of the Hamas attacks on civilians and the military targets propelled Israel to arrest the Hamas leaders including the movement’s founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Later Hamas underwent reconstructing to fortify its command structure and to settle the prime leaders out of the Israel’s reach.A cabinet was formed in Amman, Jordan, and Khaled Meshaal was elected as its head in 1966.
Later, Jordan exiled Hamas leaders from Amman in 1999, accused for using their Jordanian offices as the command post for military activities in West Bank and Gaza.
Hamas attack
Hamas initiated attack with a bombardment of minimum 5000 rockets launched from the Gaza Strip against Israel, some of the Palestine militants infringed the Gaza-Israel Barrier attacking the civilians and military bases and taking number of hostages near the Gaza Strip. In response Israel also launched a deadly retaliatory campaign. This war is the wildest since the Yom Kippur War, which is a part of the Israeli-Palestinian war which started in May of 1948. Hamas has been ruling over the Gaza Strip since 2007, avoided many engagements with Israel since 2022 and 2023. Though in 2023, before the violence started, a proliferation in the Israeli-Palestinian violence saw 247 Palestinians, 32 Israelis and 2 foreigners were killed.
After expelling the Hamas forces from the south Israel, the IDF conducted airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, which have killed over 8500 Palestinian civilians. Humanitarian crisis was raised after Israel cut off them from food, water, fuel, electricity and other supplies to Gaza. Israel impelled the civilians of Gaza to evacuate the northern Gaza while the Hamas reached out to the civilians and told them to stay int their homes. There is a report form the United Nations that about half of the Gaza’s population are internally displaced.
The killing of the civilians has spread, and the human rights groups and the United Nation have alleged both Hamas and Israel for the spreading war crimes.
After the Hamas attack in 2023, Benjamin Netanyahu who has been the prime minister since December 2022, proposed an emergency bench of the government with judicial refurbishment and all other non-emergency legislation and policies suspended.
Israel and the Gaza Strip has been in this conflict since the withdrawal of Israel from Gaza in 2005. Hamas triumphed 2006 Palestinian legislative election and a civil war broke out between Hamas and Fatah for Hamas gaining control over Gaza. In response of it Egypt and Israel imposed a seize over Gaza strip which destroyed the economy of the Gaza. Since the seize over Gaza, Israeli and Palestinian militants ha been involved in several clashes, and made consecutive attacks on each other.
According to Israeli security scholar, in May 2021, during the temple riots, Hamas leadership decided to position itself as the defender of the holy city of Jerusalem. Ismail Haniyeh, who is a leading figure and being associated with Hamas, serves now as the political leader of the group. in 2018, the U.S. state Department pronounced Haniyeh as a terrorist for his bondings to Hamas military wing and his support for armed struggle against the civilians.
In 2022, Israel conducted raids in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to target the militants. On 7th October 2023, Hamas launched land, sea and air assault on Israel and it has been the deadliest day since the independence of Israel.
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