Declared a terrorist menace yet elected to government in a free election Hamas now stands as the most important Sunni Islamist group in the Middle East. But how did Hamas grow to be so powerful? Who supports it and what is its future? This illuminating study of Hamas provides insightful answers to these pressing questions.
Declared a terrorist menace yet voted into government in a free election, Hamas then used its Gaza power base to launch cross-border attacks that scorched Israel and transformed the dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. How did a small Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood grow to challenge long-established rivals such as the PLO? Who supports Hamas and what is its agenda? How powerful has it become and how strong will it remain? With decades of combined experience researching and reporting from the occupied West Bank and Gaza, Jerusalem, and around the Middle East, Beverley Milton-Edwards and Stephen Farrell gained unrivalled access to Hamas. Drawing on years of frontline reporting and interviews with members of the group’s founding generation and their successors who now lead it, they trace Hamas’ path to the shocking attacks of 07 October 2023 and their devastating aftermath. Its critics believe Hamas must be ousted to reach a solution to the Middle East conflict. Hamas’s supporters believe it is the solution. Nobody now believes it can be ignored. Based on their landmark 2010 study which has been thoroughly revised and updated, this book brings the story of Hamas up to the present and will be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the Middle East today.