Q: Who is Hamas’s leader?

Within Gaza, Hamas is led by the elusive Yahya Sinwar . Sinwar, who founded the forerunner of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, was previously imprisoned in Israel on terrorism-related charges but was released in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, according to the State Department. Ismail Haniyeh, considered Hamas’s top political leader, is reported to live in Qatar. Along with Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s military wing, he has taken control of most public messaging from the group over recent years.

Question 1

What is Hamas?

Accepted Answer

Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, is a militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, a 25-mile-long, densely populated enclave of more than 2.1 million people. Hamas emerged in 1987 as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood during the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. It was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian cleric. Its military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, was established around 1991. Unlike the Palestinian Authority, Hamas does not recognize the existence of Israel and is committed to replacing it through armed struggle with a Palestinian state stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River. In October 1997, the United States designated Hamas a terrorist organization. The group, supported by Iran, has used explosives and rockets, along with suicide bombings and kidnappings, to target Israel. Hamas won elections in Gaza in 2006, defeating Fatah, the main Palestinian party that still controls the West Bank. Israel has targeted Hamas leaders over the years. In 1997, Khaled Meshal, a top official, survived an assassination attempt by the Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, which poisoned him in Amman, Jordan. Meshal was saved after Jordan detained the Israeli agents and President Bill Clinton pressed Israel to hand over the antidote. Israel assassinated Yassin and another founding member, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, in 2004 and killed Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari in November 2012.

Question 2

Who is Hamas’s leader?

Accepted Answer

Within Gaza, Hamas is led by the elusive Yahya Sinwar. Sinwar, who founded the forerunner of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, was previously imprisoned in Israel on terrorism-related charges but was released in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, according to the State Department. Ismail Haniyeh, considered Hamas’s top political leader, is reported to live in Qatar. Along with Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s military wing, he has taken control of most public messaging from the group over recent years.

Question 3

Why did Hamas attack Israel now?

Accepted Answer

The coordinated attack by Hamas caught Israel by surprise but comes after months of worsening tensions over violence at al-Aqsa Mosque — a sacred Muslim site in the heart of Jerusalem on the same spot as the Temple Mount revered by Jews — as well as continuing resentment of the punishing blockade and occupation of Palestinian lands. The presence of once-fringe Jewish supremacists and settler leaders in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government has further inflamed tensions with the Palestinians and caused domestic strife inside Israel that has led to a perception of weakness. Palestinian anger also reached a boiling point in May 2021 over the proposed evictions of families from a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, leading to clashes between protesters and Israeli forces that prompted Hamas to launch rockets at Israeli cities. In the months leading up to Hamas’s surprise attack, clashes had increased between Israeli forces and Palestinians, particularly in the West Bank. Between January and September, 227 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces or settlers — more than the number in all of 2022, according to the United Nations. Israeli fatalities, before the latest violence, totaled at least 29. During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in April, Israeli forces stormed al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and used force on worshipers, including women and the elderly, and Israeli police last week guarded a group of settlers marching through the area. Both Muslims and Jews, who call the mosque the Temple Mount, consider the site among the holiest in their respective faiths. A five-day conflict broke out in May between Israel and Islamic Jihad, another armed Palestinian faction, killing at least 33 in Gaza and two in Israel. Over the summer, clashes broke out between Palestinian militants in the West Bank and Israeli forces or Jewish settlers. In June, four Israelis were killed when two Hamas gunmen opened fire at a hummus restaurant outside an Israeli settlement. Days later, Israel carried out its most expansive military operation in two decades in the West Bank when it stormed the city of Jenin with about 1,000 soldiers backed by drone strikes. Calling it a “counterterrorism” effort, Israel focused the operation on the impoverished Jenin refugee camp, known to be a hub of armed factions, many with links to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Tensions in Gaza nearly spilled over in September after Israeli agents found explosives in a shipment of jeans and ended all exports from the enclave. In response, Hamas held field exercises, including practice rocket launches, and allowed Palestinians to protest at the border fence separating Israel and Gaza. Even as Netanyahu’s government has contended with the violence, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have regularly taken to the streets since spring in demonstrations against policies pushed by his right-wing coalition. The result, some analysts have speculated, has been Israeli inattention to national security and activities inside Gaza, leading to what has been widely portrayed as a massive intelligence failure. The war in Gaza — and a humanitarian crisis described as “catastrophic” by aid agencies — has triggered fears of a multi-front war in the Middle East involving Iran and its allies. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi in a tweet on Oct. 29 accused Israel of crossing the “red lines” for its military actions in Gaza, warning that it “may force everyone to take action.” He also slammed the United States for aiding Israel’s actions. Earlier, in calls to leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Raisi said that “Israel is in decline,” according to recent Iranian media reports. In comments since the attacks, Iranian officials have also issued specific warnings to Arab countries trying to normalize relations with Israel. In an apparent reference to Saudi Arabia, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior foreign policy adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned “certain governments in the region to learn a lesson from the fate of the countries that have followed the [normalization] path,” according to Iran’s Mehr News Agency. Speaking to Syria’s foreign minister, the report said, Velayati also warned against participation in the Biden administration’s proposed economic rail and sea corridor stretching through Persian Gulf countries from India to Europe. Fighting has intensified between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, though it has remained limited to the border region thus far. Israel has targeted airports in Syria including Damascus and Aleppo, and at least 24 U.S. troops have been injured amid a wave of attacks on their bases in Iraq and Syria in recent weeks, according to American military officials.

What is Hamas, and why did it attack Israel now?

Israel-Gaza war