Hamas

Palestinian Reactions to UN Security Council Resolution 2334

On December 23, 2016, a majority vote in the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2334 (in accordance with Chapter VI of the UN Charter). The resolution deals mainly with the Israeli settlements, over which there is a broad international consensus.
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News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (December 14-20, 2016)

This past week news focused on UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which dealt mainly with the issue of the Israeli settlements, over which there is broad international consensus. The resolution was regarded by the Palestinians as a significant achievement and “historic victory,” and was supported by the entire spectrum of Palestinians. On the ground nothing
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News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (December 14-20, 2016)

This past week Palestinians carried out three shooting attacks targeting Israeli vehicles on the roads in the region north of Ramallah. In addition, a Palestinian carried out a stabbing attack near the Lions Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. Tunisia reported the death of Muhammad al-Zoari, an aerial engineer; Hamas’ military-terrorist wing issued a
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News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (December 7- 13, 2016)

This past week Palestinians attempted to carry out two terrorist attacks (a vehicular attack and a stabbing attack). Popular terrorism continued unabated in Judea and Samaria with the throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails. With the growing tension in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and the Salafi jihadist organizations, Hamas sources revealed that in recent
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News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (November 30-December 6, 2016)

This past week Palestinian popular terrorism continued in Judea and Samaria with the routine throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails, and without exceptional incident. The 7th Fatah Movement Conference was held in Mahmoud Abbas was reelected head of the Fatah movement.
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Palestinian Reactions to the Wave of Fires in Israel (Updated to November 30, 2016)

For six days, between November 22 and 27, 2016, raging fires spread throughout Israel and the districts of Judea and Benjamin. According to Israeli police reports, more than 90 fires broke out. Prominent among them were fires along the Carmel mountain ridge (Haifa and Zichron Ya’akov) and a series of fires in the Judean mountains.
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Hamas

Hamas is a fundamentalist Sunni Muslim organization founded in the Gaza Strip in 1987 by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. It seeks to establish an Islamic state on the entire territory of the State of Israel and does not recognize Israel’s right to exist.


The Hamas leadership has two branches: the internal leadership, which includes the military wing and the de-facto Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, responsible for the day-to-day activities of governing the Gaza Strip population, in addition to social, educational activity vis-à-vis the population of the Gaza Strip; and the external leadership, Hamas’s political bureau, located beyond the borders of the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria. The external leadership maintains relations with various countries and bodies, and deals mainly with raising money and finding other resources for Hamas in the Gaza Strip.


Hamas’s ideology seeks to establish an Islamic Palestinian state on the entire territory of Israel. The preferred way to achieve this goal is through armed struggle. Hamas has a military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, which carries out terrorist attacks against Israel, including rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and various kinds of other attacks (such as shooting, suicide bombings, abductions etc.) in the territories of Judea, Samaria and Israel.


Over the years, Hamas has challenged the PLO and the Palestinian Authority, causing conflicts between the sides, culminating in June 2007 with Hamas’s violent takeover of the Gaza Strip and the suppression of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority members. Ever since, the rift between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority has grown.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by several countries, including Israel, the United States, and the European Union.