Understanding Hamas: Ideology and Tactics

This assignment delves into Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, examining its origins, ideology, tactics, strategies, and the various responses it has elicited. It utilizes resources like academic journals, think tank reports, and news articles to provide a comprehensive understanding of this complex organization within the context of the Middle East conflict.

Running Head: Hamas Organization
Key Issues in International Terrorism

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Origin of Hamas Terrorist Group.................................................................................................................2
Aim and Ideology.........................................................................................................................................3
Leadership...................................................................................................................................................3
Structure of terrorist group.........................................................................................................................4
Strategies and Targets.................................................................................................................................5
Attack records.............................................................................................................................................6
Future of group...........................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................6
Reference....................................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The purpose of this report is to provide a brief overview regarding the Hamas terrorist group
organization. The organization was formerly called as a political party ruling the nation. But due
to its activities some of the nation calls them terrorist group organization. Apart from that, the
task explains a brief overview of the origin of the organization, its activities etc. Also, the task
further explains the leadership structure and activities of the organization. Hamas is a terrorist
association which in coalition with Muslim brotherhood who initially developed themselves as a
political party (Wood, & Thomas, 2017). Further, they initiated their terrorist activities in order
to gain confidence over the Islam religion in the Palestinians land. More details about the task
are discussed below.
Origin of Hamas Terrorist Group
HAMAS, an Arabic word meaning zeal, is an acronym of al-harakat al-muqawwama al-
islamiyya- the Islamic resistance movement. The coalition was established by the Palestinian
branch of Muslim brotherhood. The Palestinian legislative elections held in January 2006 were
the time when this terrorist group gains largest majority of in the parliament by defeating the
ruling party Fatah. During that time Hamas also acquired a major portion of the Gaza as well.
Since then from the year 2007, Hamas party controlled the Gaza strip situated there. Hamas also
played several wars with Israel, the united states a European Union, after which the group as
regarded as a terrorist group in many international countries (Singh, 2013). The organization
particularly headquartered in Gaza, Palestinian territories and is preceded by the Palestinian
Muslim brotherhood group. In the current era, the organization is controlled and managed by the
spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum along with chief of political bureau Ismail Haniya and deputy
chief of political bureau Khaled Mashal and Mousa Abu marzouq.
The organization was initially founded by Mahmoud Zahar, Sheikh Ahmeed Yassin, Abdel Aziz
al-Rantissi and four others in the year 1987; after the broke of First Intifada as an Egyptian
Muslim Brotherhood. Further Hamas charter was affirmed in the year 1988 that the organization
was originated to release Palestine including the modern day Israel, the west bank and the Gaza
strip. The organization mentioned that they will they will accept the 10 year truce with the

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country if Israel removes the border of 1067and allow the Palestinian refugees to come along
with their descendants. In the year 1987 many Palestinians were murdered in a traffic accident
done by an Israel driver. The further event was raised and followed Palestinian uprising against
the Gaza Strip and West Bank (Szekely, 2017). After which Hamas acted as an offshoot of the
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and it was later fully supported by them as well. Hamas was
coined and identified majorly in the year 1987 when the collaborator of the organization accused
and defamed the Israeli military by the way of their pamphlets. Later Hamas also gained
confidence over the party of Fatah as they were assisted by Mossad. The first attack by the
organization was carried in the year 1989 against the Israel. Under this terrorist attack, they
kidnaped and killed two of their soldiers. After this, the Israel Defense Forces arrest many
activists of the organization and prison them but during that time also the organization was
aiming to grow and gain more power; resulting to which they were forming relationship with
Hezbollah for more powers (Schwartz, & Galily, 2017).
Aim and Ideology
As defined in the Hamas charter of 1988, the main motive of the organization is battle with the
defense of Israel which is called as foreign cancer on the sacred Muslim terrestrial. Without
mission, the organization has no other reason to exist. Thus it shall be said that the main motive
of the organization is to protect the Islamic religion on the Palestinian land so that the originality
and the emotions of the Muslim remain holy. Apart from that as the name of the organization
(Islamic Resistance Movement) suggests that the coalition aim to release the Palestine from the
land of Israel. The organization with their efforts wants to protect the religion (Santi, 2014).
Further talking about the ideology of the organization, it shall be noted that the branch of the
Muslim Brotherhood is dedicated to the western influences and particularly devoted the British
colonial rule. According to one of the professor of Middle Eastern studies department at king's
college, a statement was issued saying that the Palestine struggle is not an ordinary political issue
between two parties (nations), nor it is the struggle a national self-determination by local people
against the foreigner country people. Rather the Palestine issue is noticed as one of the
worldwide concern of holy war which is in existence so as to prevent the Islam from its
existence. Another ideology which came into reality by the Muslim brothers was when they

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experienced resurgence of the religion in the West Bank, Egypt, Gaza Strip and Jordon etc.
nations. After that, them aimed to address the Islam religion abed issues and create a social
educational group with strongly hold their ideologies in the whole nation (Satloff, 2017).
The organization primarily drew two ideologies mainly universalistic Islamic principles of
Muslim Brotherhood which provided a turn back to the Arab Islamic society to the traditional
state of Islam. And another one is the Palestinian tenet of releasing the religion united with the
objective of engaging the Islamic religion in all the states of Palestine.
Leadership
Hamas developed the leadership structure from its predecessor which is a tripartite structure of
social service. Traditionally the structure has four different features that are military division
which procures weapons and undertake all the terrorist operations (al-Mujahideen al Filastinun),
another one is the charitable social welfare part of the organization (dawah), next is the security
services (Jehaz Aman) and the last one is a branch of media which holds all the popular activities
of the organization (A'alam). Talking about the leadership features of the organization it shall be
noted that the organization conducts both types of leadership (Maggs, 2011). The internal
leadership is held with the Gaza Strip and West Bank and the external leadership traits in the
organization are seen with the split between the Gaza group directed by Mousa and the Kuwait
group under the observation of Khaled Mashal. The Khaled Mashal' group of Kuwait started
receiving more and more funding from the states of gulf after the prominent leader Mashal broke
with the decision of Yasser Arafat with Saddam Hussein regarding the decision of invasion of
Kuwait. Afterwards, the Hamas chose the Ismail Haniya to replace the leadership place of
Mashal and became the new leader of the organization (Middle East, 2017).
Further Hams contain three leadership circles under which the first circle includes the circle of
local leaders in the nations of West Bank and Gaza strips. The most famous activist among them
is Abdull Aziiz Rantis and Sheih Ahmed Yasi who were killed by Israel during a war in current
years, afterward their place was filled by Ismail Haniyeh and Mahmoud al –Zahar. The second
circle of leadership includes external leadership group of the organization, regarded as a political
bureau. This circle included Mousa Abu Marzouk and Khaled Mashal (Milton-Edwards, 2017).
And finally the third circle includes the leadership of the international union of Muslim

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Brotherhood. All the three circles have their own responsibilities and activities to follow. The
evidence against the organization shows that there is a major role of both insider and outsider in
planning the Hamas strategies for the terrorist attack against the nation Israel. The political
identity of the group shows that they care about the social interest of people and support the
social welfare activities of the organization (Platt, 2015).
Structure of terrorist group
The terrorist group Hamas different structure from their political parties or illegal organizations
as it initiates many activities in favor and against of the people. Further, the structure of Hamas is
discussed below.
Consultative Councils: the governing body of Hamas is Majlis al-Shura, which defined the
principle behind the council; they said that it is a Qur'anic concept which combines democracy in
an organization with the Islamic framework. As the association grew, the structure became more
complex due to the pressure of Israel. With the upcoming time, the council bordered their
decision base and renamed it as ‘General Consultative Council', and elected members to form
local council groups (Ganor, 2013). This election designated 15 members Politburo who were
held responsible to make decision on the highest level. The representatives of this organization
come from West and, Gaza and Israel prison as well. The organs of this council are located in
any part of the nation, they rule from there by being a physical available in Damascus, Qatar etc.
(Garud, 2017) .
Social Service Wing: the organization Hamas developed itself as a social service wing which
has keen interest in developing the communities. This organization was formed by imitating the
model commenced by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. Their thinking is that charity and
development of a place or community is design by the religion and is also understood as form of
confrontation. The traditions of the Islamic tradition Dawah which means the call to god,
gratified to call people and work together for charity so as to improve the conditions of the
society and achieve the objectives of Islam (Gross, Canetti, & Vashdi, 2016). Further, the
tradition was converted, as then people started contributing in mosques in the form of waqf and
zakat. Waqf refers to the charitable endorsement made in the mosque whereas zakat refers to the
grassroots services like nursing, school, kitchen etc. In the year 1990, the budget allocated to the

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organization for optimizing such activities was 85% of the budget allocated to the total budget
allocated for the organization. Thus, it shall be noticed that this wing of Hamas has greatest
significance in the land of Palestinian. Thus it shall be noticed that the whole working of the
organization is based on the concept of dawah, as it states that it is important for a human to
initiate rightful charitable activities so that it can provide help to all the people who are incapable
of receiving all such activities (Hanaini, & Ahmad, 2016). The main motive of the organization
is to initiate their services globally so that people of their religion do not need to face any
problem in living their lives sustainably. In accordance with that concept, their social service
group was defined by the organization. This group is regarded as the biggest structure of Hamas.
They also supported the militants who worked in favor of their motive, apart from the Hamas
also managed to optimize recruitment and stipend of around 100,000 workers. Many other
activities were also organized by Hamas to support people of their community (Jefferis, 2016).
Military Wing: the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, popularly known as the military wing of
Hamas was formed in the year 1991 or 1992, under the surveillance of Yahya Ayyash, who is a
commander of Hamas field and a bomber assassinated. The organization gathered militants from
Islamic region and other places who can work for them to accomplish their motives. The
organization worked under the leadership of brigades, they provide military styling training to
them. Estimating to the organization they have allocated around 17,000 operatives working with
them (Lutz, 2017).
Strategies and Targets
The fact has been noticed that Hamas plays its activities in a flexible manner, in this way they do
not harshly provoke sentiments of any person. Also, they always aim to stick to their
fundamental strategy which outrages violence in some aspects. In pursuit of good-governance
many times Abbas showed their violent intentions in their workings, but apart from that, they
play a significant leadership role in the organization (Freilich, 2017). The organization's initial
objective post elections were to broaden their control on all the aspects of the Palestinian land.
Their tactics were to initiate long-term control on the structure of the society. They also
successfully plays a role of being a good government apart from calling themselves a terrorist
group. The organization uses their political powers in a way that they do not need to face any

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negative impact of their actions on near future. Also, Hamas played the tactic to join the hunda
with Israel government so as to fulfill their requirements (Counter Extremism project, 2017).
Attack records
There are many illegal activities which the organization initiated which affected the people in
that region some of the activities are discussed below:
Attacks on residents: the first attack of the organization occurred in the year 1993 when the
brigade operative blows a car through an explosive. They act led to killing may Palestinians
citizens along with harming 8 Israel soldiers a well.
A rocket attack on Israel: according to the human rights war, the organization has launched any
rockets in the nation Israel from the year 2001. This act killed 15 residents of the nation and
injuring many people as well. The leader stated that the purpose of these rocket attacks is to
strike the civilians of the country (Cook, 2015).
Future of group
It can be said that the current government of Hamas can fully survive in the nation with such
illegal activities. As the organization is involved in various illegal activities which are criticizing
the growth of Israel due to which trouble is ahead for the organization. But if the Israeli
government manages to coupe up the Hamas association then their government might sustain n
the nation (Brenner, 2017).
Conclusion
Thus in the limelight of above mentioned events, the facts that shall be noticed is that the
terrorist group Hamas initiates their illegal activities so s to protect their religion in the land of
Palestinian. Further, the organization conducted many illegal as well as legal activities so as to
protect the interest of people. The group is regarded as a terrorist group in many countries due to
their illegal activities. Apart from that Hamas is a political social party ruling for the welfare of
people has done many attacks and killed many people just to safeguard their religion. The

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organization also receives international support due to which it is prevailing in the world, but one
strong step can help the people to save themselves from the terror of this organization Hamas.

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Reference
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Cook, D. (2015). ISLAMIST TERRORISM FROM THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD TO
HAMAS. The Routledge History of Terrorism, 270.
Counter Extremism project. (2017). Hamas. Viewed on October 20, 2017 from
https://www.counterextremism.com/threat/hamas
Freilich, C. D. (2017). Israel's counter-terrorism policy: how effective?. Terrorism and political
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Ganor, B. (2013). Israel and Hamas: Is War Imminent?. Orbis, 57(1), 120-134.
Garud, N. (2017). Book Review: Terrorism in Cyberspace: The Next Generation by Gabriel
Weimann.
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