Hamas,an acronym of its official name,Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya,is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist political and military movement governing parts of the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip.
Mohammed Deif,born Mohammed al-Masri,is a Palestinian militant and the head of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades,the military wing of the Islamist organization Hamas.
Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi was a Palestinian political leader and co-founder of Hamas,along with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Mohammad Yusuf Dahlan born on 29 September 1961 in Khan Yunis Refugee Camp,Khan Yunis,Gaza Strip also known by the kunya Abu Fadi is a Palestinian politician,the former leader of Fatah in Gaza. Dahlan was born to a refugee family from Hamama,the youngest of six children.
Mahmoud al-Zahar is a Palestinian politician. He is a co-founder of Hamas and a member of the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip. Al-Zahar served as foreign minister in the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Authority Government of March 2006 that was sworn in on 20 March 2006.
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades,named after Izz ad-Din al-Qassam,is the military wing of the Palestinian organization Hamas. Currently led by Mohammed Deif,IQB is the largest and best-equipped militant group operating within Gaza today.
Palestinian political violence refers to actions carried out by Palestinians with the intent to achieve political objectives that can involve the use of force,some of which are considered acts of terror,and often carried out in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Common objectives of political violence by Palestinian nationalists include self-determination in and sovereignty over Palestine,or the "liberation of Palestine" and recognition of a Palestinian state,either in place of both Israel and the Palestinian territories,or solely in the Palestinian territories. Some perpetrators of these acts support the dismantling of the State of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian Arab state. More limited goals include the release of Palestinian prisoners or the Palestinian right of return. Other motivations include personal grievances,trauma or revenge.
The Fatah–Hamas conflict is an ongoing political and strategic conflict between Fatah and Hamas,the two main Palestinian political parties in the Palestinian territories,leading to the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. The reconciliation process and unification of Hamas and Fatah administrations remains unfinalized and the situation is deemed a frozen conflict.
The next Palestinian legislative election was scheduled for 22 May 2021,according to a decree by President Mahmoud Abbas on 15 January 2021,but was indefinitely postponed on 29 April 2021.
The Gaza–Israel conflict is a localized part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict beginning in 1948,when 200,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes,settling in the Gaza Strip as refugees. Since then,Israel has fought 15 wars against the Gaza Strip. The number of Gazans reportedly killed in the most recent 2023 war —27,000 —is higher than the death toll of all other wars of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The Gaza War,also known as Operation Cast Lead,also known as the Gaza Massacre,and referred to as the Battle of al-Furqan by Hamas,was a three-week armed conflict between Gaza Strip Palestinian paramilitary groups and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that began on 27 December 2008 and ended on 18 January 2009 with a unilateral ceasefire. The conflict resulted in 1,166–1,417 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths. Over 46,000 homes were destroyed in Gaza,making more than 100,000 people homeless.
Since 2001,Palestinian militants have launched tens of thousands of rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip as part of the continuing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The attacks,widely condemned for targeting civilians,have been described as terrorism by the United Nations,the European Union,and Israeli officials,and are defined as war crimes by human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The international community considers indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets to be illegal under international law. Palestinian militants say rocket attacks are a response to Israel's blockade of Gaza,but the Palestinian Authority has condemned them and says rocket attacks undermine peace.
Legislative elections were held in the Palestinian territories on 25 January 2006 in order to elect the second Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC),the legislature of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The result was a victory for Hamas,contesting under the list name of Change and Reform,which received 44.45% of the vote and won 74 of the 132 seats,whilst the ruling Fatah received 41.43% of the vote and won 45 seats.
The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) is the unicameral legislature of the Palestinian Authority,elected by the Palestinian residents of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It currently comprises 132 members,elected from 16 electoral districts of the Palestinian Authority. The PLC has a quorum requirement of two-thirds,and since 2006 Hamas and Hamas-affiliated members have held 74 of the 132 seats in the PLC. The PLC's activities were suspended in 2007 and remained so as of November 2023,while PLC committees continue working at a low rate and parliamentary panel discussions are still occurring.
The Battle of Gaza was a military conflict between Fatah and Hamas that took place in the Gaza Strip from 10 to 15 June 2007. It was a prominent event in the Fatah–Hamas conflict,centered on the struggle for power after Fatah lost the 2006 Palestinian legislative election. The battle resulted in the dissolution of the unity government and the de facto division of the Palestinian territories into two entities:the West Bank governed by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA),and the Gaza Strip governed by Hamas. Hamas fighters took control of the Gaza Strip,while Fatah officials were either taken as prisoners,executed,or expelled. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reported that at least 161 people were killed and more than 700 were wounded during the fighting.
Ismail Haniyeh is a Palestinian politician who is seen as the overall political leader of Hamas,the de facto ruling entity of the Gaza Strip. He is the current chairman of Hamas’s political bureau;as of 2023,Haniyeh lives in Qatar.
The 2014 Gaza War,also known as Operation Protective Edge,and Battle of the Withered Grain,was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip,a Palestinian territory that has been governed by Hamas since 2007. Following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank by Hamas-affiliated Palestinian militants,the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) initiated Operation Brother's Keeper,in which some 350 Palestinians,including nearly all of the active Hamas militants in the West Bank,were arrested. Hamas subsequently fired a greater number of rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip,triggering a seven-week-long conflict between the two sides. It was one of the deadliest outbreaks of open conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in decades. The combination of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli airstrikes resulted in over two thousand deaths,the vast majority of which were Gazan Palestinians. This includes a total of six Israeli civilians who were killed as a result of the conflict.
Khalil al-Hayya is a senior Hamas official who was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council on 25 January 2006 as a representative of Gaza City. He resided in the neighborhood of Shuja'iyya.
Yahya Sinwar,also spelled Yehya Sinwar,is a Palestinian politician who has been leader of Hamas,the Sunni Islamist political and military organization that rules the Gaza Strip,since 2017.
Gaza-Israel clashes began on 11 November 2018,when a botched Israeli covert operation carried out in the Khan Yunis area of the southern Gaza Strip killed seven Palestinian militants and one Israeli soldier. Exchanges of fire lasted for two more days,until a cease fire was achieved with Egyptian mediation. Some minor incidents and protests followed some two weeks after the cease fire,with decreasing intensity.
