News.Scotsman.com
Peace? No, never – inside the mind of Hamas
Published Date: 05 January 2009
By Billy Briggs
Paramilitaries who want Israel replaced by an Islamic state
HAMAS, a Palestinian Sunni paramilitary organisation and political party which holds a majority of seats in the elected legislative council of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), does not recognise the right of Israel to exist.
It wants to create an Islamic state out of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the group's many thousands of supporters want complete Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territories.
The military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, is responsible for firing rockets deep into Israel. In February and March 1996, Hamas carried out several bus bombings, killing nearly 60 Israelis. It was also blamed for the 1997 attacks in Jerusalem which killed 15 people, and brought the then peace process to a halt.
Hamas was created in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi and Mohammad Taha of the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.
In January 2006, Hamas won 76 of the 132 seats in the Palestinian parliament, while the previous ruling Fatah party only took 43, sparking fierce in-fighting between Hamas and Fatah. Following the Battle for Gaza in June 2007, elected Hamas officials were ousted from the PNA government in the West Bank and replaced by rival Fatah members. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, denounced the Hamas militia. As a result, the two groups have failed to agree a policy for them to co-exist within the PNA mutually to tackle Israeli aggression.
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