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.
Khan Yunis, also spelled Khan Younis or Khan Yunus, is a city in the southern Gaza Strip; it is the capital of the Khan Yunis Governorate in the Gaza Strip. Before the 14th century, Khan Yunis was a village known as "Salqah". To protect caravans, pilgrims and travellers a vast caravan serai was constructed there by the emir Yonus an-Nürüzi in 1387-88, an official of the Mamluk Empire. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Khan Yunis had a population of 205,125 in 2017. Khan Yunis, which lies only four kilometres east of the Mediterranean Sea, has a semi-arid climate with temperature of 30 °C maximum in summer and 10 °C minimum in winter, with an annual rainfall of approximately 260 mm (10.2 in).
Yahya Abd-al-Latif Ayyash was the chief bombmaker of Hamas and the leader of the West Bank battalion of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. In that capacity, he earned the nickname the Engineer. Ayyash is credited with advancing the technique of suicide bombing in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The bombings he orchestrated killed approximately 90 Israelis, many of them civilians. He was assassinated by Shin Bet on 5 January 1996.
The Brigades of the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa are the armed wing of the Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the Palestinian territories.
The Doghmush is a Palestinian clan from the Gaza Strip.
Nuseirat is a Palestinian refugee camp located in the middle of the Gaza Strip, five kilometers north-east of Deir al-Balah. The refugee camp is in the Deir al-Balah Governorate, Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the refugee camp had a population of 31,747 and the surrounding Nuseirat municipality had a population of 54,851 in 2017.
The 2009 Ibrahim al-Maqadma Mosque strike or massacre of Ibrahim al-Maqadma Mosque occurred on January 3, 2009, as part of the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza War when the Israeli Air Forces launched a missile and hit the Martyr Ibrahim al-Maqadma Mosque in Beit Lahia in the Gaza strip during the evening prayers.
Emad Akel also spelled Imad Akel was a commander of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. He was killed by the Israel Defense Forces.
The governance of the Gaza Strip since the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 has been carried out by Hamas. The Hamas government in Gaza was led by Ismail Haniyeh from 2007 until February 2017, when Haniyeh was replaced as leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip by Yahya Sinwar. As of November 2023, Yahya Sinwar continues to be the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Due to the ongoing Israel–Hamas war, Hamas lost control of most of the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
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.
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.
Tayseer Mahmoud al-Jabari was a Palestinian militant and senior commander of the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement. He succeeded Baha Abu al-Ata as the brigades' commander in the northern Gaza Strip, holding that position from the former's assassination in 2019 until his own assassination in 2022, which sparked the 2022 Gaza–Israel clashes.
Omar Saleh Omar Ferwana was a Palestinian gynaecologist and researcher. He worked as a dean and assistant professor at Islamic University of Gaza, Faculty of Medicine.
The Al Qarara Cultural Museum was a museum in al-Qarara, near Khan Yunis, in the Gaza Strip. Founded in 2016, the museum featured the archaeology and history of the area, collected by its founders and by local community members. It was destroyed by Israeli forces in October 2023.
Since the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has conducted numerous airstrikes in densely populated Palestinian refugee camps in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank as part of its military operations in the Israel–Hamas war.
Gaza Now News Network is a Hamas-aligned Palestinian news agency based in Gaza. Its Telegram channel, Facebook page, and television station are among the most popular in Gaza, rapidly growing in popularity during the 2023 Israel-Hamas war.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been accused of targeting municipal services in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. as part of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war. The service sector in the region has been repeatedly bombed by the IDF, with a large number of workers in this field killed as a result and the destruction of several municipal facilities and vehicles that provide services to Palestinian citizens.
Fouad Ali Suleiman Abu Butihan was a Palestinian government official and the Hamas-appointed head of the Border and Crossing Authority in Gaza.
Hani Abdul Hakim Suleiman Masdar was a Palestinian athlete and coach. He was born and lived in the village of Al-Musaddar in the central Gaza Strip. He studied at Al-Manfaluti Secondary School and obtained a high school degree from Khaled Bin Al-Walid Secondary School in Nuseirat. He was a player and coach of the Palestine national football team, and he had previously supervised the training of several Palestinian teams, most notably Al-Aqsa, Khadamat Al-Nuseirat, and Deir Al-Balah Union. He led to promotion to the Palestinian League for first-class teams, before supervising the Olympic team.
