Israel was the victim of a coordinated air, land and sea attack on Saturday by Hamas terrorists operating out of the West Bank of Gaza, where most of the population is Palestinian.
The surprise attack, which included a rocket attack on a nearby village in Israel, killed more than 800 Israelis and injured nearly 2,200. About 100 more people have been taken hostage by Iran-backed extremists.
The attack, the largest of its kind in 50 years, prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare war on Hamas, with the Jewish State’s counterattack killing 370 Palestinians and injuring around 2,000 and threatening a full-scale ground invasion.
Territory in the area has been contested since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Hamas is both an Islamic fundamentalist military organization and a political organization, which is considered to have the most power within the Palestinian National Authority.
The violence over the weekend also claimed the lives of at least nine Americans, prompting US officials to pledge strong support for Israel.
The terrorist group Hamas launched an attack on Israel on Saturday, killing more than 700 people.Getty Images
What is Hamas?
Hamas, also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, is a group that governs Gaza, a 25-mile strip of land along the Mediterranean with a population of more than two million people and the West Bank, a larger area that has both Palestinian residents. and Israeli settlements but are under Israeli military occupation.
The group was born as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1987 and was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian living in Gaza.
Hamas strongly opposes Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and aims to create its own Palestinian state — something it has always said it will do through violence.
The group has repeatedly used terrorist tactics against Israel, including mass killings, rocket attacks, suicide bombings and kidnappings.
Hamas won the 2006 parliamentary elections, but in 2007 seized the Gaza strip by force and has controlled the area ever since, having wrested it from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority.
Hamas was finally labeled a terrorist organization by the United States and other western countries in 1997.
Hamas is led by Ismail Haniya, who operates out of ally Qatar. AFP via Getty Images
Why did Hamas attack Israel?
Hamas, since its conception, has opposed Israel, with the terrorist group’s leadership vowing to eliminate the Jewish state and create an Islamic state in its place.
While the group has a history of attacking Israel, the latest violence over the weekend was on a larger scale than anything seen in decades. The military activity – which was planned and authorized by leaders in Iran, according to the Wall Street Journal – was labeled Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
The reason given by Hamas for launching the action was “to defend the Aqsa Mosque,” an important Muslim holy site in Jerusalem, which Israel claimed had allowed Jewish groups to “desecrate” prayers at the site.
Along with the brutal killings, Hamas forces also kidnapped over 100 people in Israel. AFP via Getty Images
It also cited Israel’s long-standing blockade of the Gaza strip, which has been ongoing since 2007, and Israeli violence against Palestinians as reasons for the terrorist attacks.
As of September, 227 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in 2023, which is more than the total for 2022 and far more than the 29 Israeli deaths suffered so far, according to the United Nations.
On Sunday, Saleh al-Arouri, deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, claimed the terrorist group had taken enough Israeli soldiers and civilian hostages during Saturday’s surprise attack to exchange all Palestinian prisoners in the country’s prisons, said to number 5,200.
In response to Hamas’ actions, the Israel Defense Forces called up thousands of reservists and assembled them on the West Bank border and prepared to launch its own ground operations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had told all civilians in the area to leave because Israeli forces would turn “all Hamas hideouts into rubble.”
Hamas has many supporters among the 2 million people living in Gaza. AFP via Getty Images
Who funds Hamas?
Although Hamas is recognized as a terrorist group by various countries around the world, it has some supporters throughout the Muslim world who stand by its fight against Israel.
Hamas is mainly supported by Iran, Israel’s arch-enemy, which provides funding for weapons and training. The terror group has also received funding from Qatar, which also provides safe haven for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Iran, Qatar and Syria have all criticized Israel’s recent actions in the West Bank, and claimed the Jewish State brought Saturday’s violence on itself.
Hamas receives funding for its weapons and training through Iran, Israel’s old enemy. AFP via Getty Images
Hamas also receives aid from Hezbollah, another Islamic extremist group and political party operating in Lebanon. Hezbollah has also launched its own attacks against Israel near the country’s northern border “in solidarity” with the terrorists.
“Our hearts are with you. Our thoughts are with you. Our souls are with you. History and our guns and rockets are with you,” Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine told Hamas on Sunday.
Israel responded with rocket fire of its own and Hezbollah later confirmed that three of its members had been killed.
Why are Israel and Hamas at war?
The main conflict driving the bloody war between Israel and Hamas is that both groups claim rights to Jerusalem, the holy land worshiped in the Jewish, Islamic and Christian faiths.
The site holds the Temple Mount, the biblical location where Abraham is said to have offered to sacrifice his son as a test of supreme devotion to God.
Hamas terrorists celebrate by the border fence in the Gaza Strip during Saturday’s attack. AP
Leaders in Palestine and Israel have tried to negotiate a joint occupation of the land, but potential deals brokered by global powers for decades have all but failed. Ultimately Hamas does not believe in peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Jews.
The terrorist organization has vowed to kill Israelis and establish a full-fledged Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital.
Hamas’ main goal is to restore the division of land between Jews and Muslims to where it was before the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights, which led to the displacement of thousands of Palestinians.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
