Hamas

Hamas is an Islamist political organisation and armed militant group based in the Palestinian territories, regarded as a terrorist organisation by Israel as well as by numerous Western nations including the US and the EU countries. It refuses to accept the legitimacy of the State of Israel.

The name Hamas is an acronym of Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya (Islamic Resistance Movement).

Hamas was founded in 1987. From the 1990s it achieved notoriety for its use of the tactic of suicide bombing, principally against civilian targets in Israel. It also set itself in opposition to the secular Fatah movement. In the 2006 elections to the Palestinian Authority legislature Hamas gained a majority of seats; its government was dissolved in June 1997 by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas following the military takeover by Hamas of the Gaza Strip after several days o0f fighting between Hamas and Fatah.