00:00 What is Hamas, the militant group that attacked Israel last weekend?
00:03 To understand, we need to go back to the 1980s.
00:07 At that time, the Palestinian territories, made up of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,
00:12 were under Israeli military occupation.
00:15 In December 1987, tensions were so high that the death of an Israeli led to riots and war.
00:21 The uprising of Palestinians against the Israeli armed forces became known as the First Intifada,
00:27 or Stone Uprising.
00:29 After the stones thrown by Palestinians during the fighting,
00:33 it was then that Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, was founded.
00:38 The group grew out of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood,
00:41 an Islamist organization founded in Egypt.
00:44 Its spiritual leader is Sheikh Ahmed Yossi,
00:47 who wanted to spread Islam in the occupied territories and create Palestinian unity.
00:52 And as Hamas states in its founding charter,
00:54 its original aim is to destroy the State of Israel,
00:57 which does not recognize, liberate the occupied territories,
01:01 and create an Islamic Palestinian state.
01:03 Hamas is both a political and military Islamist movement.
01:08 The group is made up of a council that defines its strategy and policy,
01:12 and a political bureau that brings together the movement's leaders and representatives.
01:17 On the military side, the al-Qasem brigades were created in 1991.
01:21 With these brigades, Hamas has been multiplying its attacks on Israel since 1994.
01:27 Its aim was to sabotage the peace process initiated by the Oslo Accords of September 1993.
01:34 These accords proposed a territorial division of historic Palestine between Israel and Palestine,
01:40 which Hamas categorically refuses.
01:43 And in the 1990s, the group opposed the Palestinian Authority,
01:47 a government body that administers the occupied Palestinian territories
01:51 and is open to a solution without fighting.
01:54 Hamas rejects this.
01:56 At that time, a great rivalry arose between the two organizations.
02:01 But Hamas grew in popularity in part by forging links with the local population.
02:06 It created networks of mosques, social aid, and charity organizations.
02:11 And the following events gave the group legitimacy among Gazans.
02:15 Israel's violent repression during the second intifada in 2000 weakened the pro-peace movement.
02:21 So Hamas was able to establish itself on Gaza's political scene.
02:25 In 2006, it won the legislative elections and overthrew the forces loyal to the Palestinian
02:31 Authority in a brief inter-Palestinian civil war.
02:34 Since 2007, Hamas has exercised control over Gaza while continuing to carry out attacks in Israel.
02:41 Internationally, the movement is considered a terrorist organization by Israel,
02:47 the U.S., the EU, and many other countries.
02:50 But Hamas is not alone.
02:52 The group is allied with Syria, the Lebanese Islamist militant group Hezbollah, Qatar, and Iran.
02:58 They provide Hamas with a great deal of financial and material support.
03:03 Over the years, Hamas has increased its military capabilities
03:07 and developed many of its own weapons.
03:09 This was one of the reasons the group was able to launch its attack on Israel on October 7.
Commentaires