What is Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran’s Role in the Israel Conflict?

Hamas, officially and formally known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, emerged in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank during a period of profound political and social change.

The Sunni Islamist political and military organisation was founded by Palestinian imam and activist Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 1987, against the backdrop of the protests and violent riots carried out by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and Israel, which has become known as the First Intifada (Palestinian uprising) also known as Stone Intifada against Israeli occupation.

In 1973 Yassin had established in Gaza Mujama al-Islamiya, as a religious charity involved with the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood. Later he and six other Mujama Islamist members launched Hamas, originally calling it the “paramilitary wing” of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, and Yassin became its spiritual leader.

Hamas’s ideology was rooted in Islamism plus taking the position that Palestine cannot be surrendered to non-Muslims. They advocated for the establishment of an Islamic state in historic Palestine. Central to its platform was the rejection of Israel’s right to exist. Hamas viewed the Palestinian struggle as a religious obligation and framed it within the context of a broader Islamic resistance against perceived injustices.

It opposed the 1993 peace agreement between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel. Beginning in 2000, the group intensified its violent acts against Israelis, including numerous suicide bombings. In 2006 Ḥamās participated in the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council and won a surprise victory over Fatah, the political and military organisation of Arab Palestinians, founded in the late 1950s by Yassir Arafat and Khalīl al-Wazīr (Abū Jihād) with the aim of wresting Palestine from Israeli control by waging low-intensity guerrilla warfare.

Explore the intertwined dynamics of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran amidst the Israeli conflict, unveiling a complex geopolitical saga.

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