When was hamas elected in gaza

Subscribe for our daily curated newsletter to receive the latest exclusive Reuters coverage delivered to your inbox. More from Reuters. Sign up for our newsletter Subscribe for our daily curated newsletter to receive the latest exclusive Reuters coverage delivered to your inbox. Sign up. Since then, militants in Gaza have fought four major conflicts with Israel, which along with Egypt has maintained a blockade on the strip to isolate Hamas and to pressure it to stop attacks.

Hamas as a whole, or in some cases its military wing, is designated a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, European Union and United Kingdom, as well as other powers. Hamas came to prominence after the first intifada as the main Palestinian group opposed to the Oslo peace accords signed in the early s between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation PLO , the body representing most Palestinians.

Despite numerous Israeli operations against it and clampdowns by the Palestinian Authority the main governing body of the Palestinians Hamas found it had an effective power of veto over the process by launching suicide attacks. It carried out multiple bus bombings, killing scores of Israelis, and stepped up its attacks after Israel assassinated its chief bomb maker Yahya Ayyash in December The bombings were widely blamed for turning Israelis off the peace process and bringing Benjamin Netanyahu - a staunch opponent of the Oslo accords - to power in In the post-Oslo world, most particularly following the failure of US President Bill Clinton's Camp David summit in and the second intifada which followed shortly thereafter, Hamas gained power and influence as Israel clamped down on the Palestinian Authority, which it accused of sponsoring deadly attacks.

Hamas organised clinics and schools, which served Palestinians who felt let down by the corrupt and inefficient Palestinian Authority, dominated by the Fatah faction. Many Palestinians cheered the wave of Hamas suicide attacks in the first years of the second intifada.

They saw "martyrdom" operations as avenging their own losses and Israel's settlement-building in the West Bank, territory wanted by Palestinians for a future state of their own. When Hamas scored a landslide victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections in , the stage was set for a bitter power-struggle with Fatah. Hamas resisted all efforts to get it to sign up to previous Palestinian agreements with Israel, as well as to recognise Israel's legitimacy and to renounce violence.

But there remain obstacles over the future of Hamas's armed wing and its insistence that it will not recognise Israel, which are major blocks to foreign cooperation and negotiations. Mr Abbas has argued that by running for election to a parliament established as part of the Oslo peace accords, Hamas implicitly accepts the agreement's recognition of the Jewish state.

For its part, Israel has said it will have nothing to do with Hamas until it recognises the Jewish state and has declared that a Hamas government will damage the peace process. Many Palestinians do not believe any such process exists. Ariel Sharon, as prime minister, refused to negotiate, preferring to pursue his strategy of unilaterally imposing the final borders of Israel. The Hamas charter demands the destruction of Israel, but its leaders have said for some time they can live with the Jewish state within its border if Israel recognises the right of a Palestinian state to exist on all of the occupied territories.

The sweeping victory by Hamas has left Israelis divided. While politicians with one eye on the Israeli general election in March were outraged and denounced the result as the first step towards the creation of a "terrorist state" next door, there were plenty of voices urging a pragmatic approach. Like Us. Close Modal. Close Modal Search What do you want to search for? How To Join How to Join. Special Forces Special Forces.