In graphics | How was Hamas created? How does it operate?

The Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a well-planned surprise attack on Israel on 7 October, killing more than 1,400 people and taking at least 199 others, including children hostages.

Established in 1987, Hamas is an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, meaning Islamic Resistance Movement. It was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian cleric who established the Palestinian Islamist movement as the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood (founded in Egypt in the 1920s), according to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

The largest Islamist militant group in Palestine that rules Gaza since 2007 after a brief civil war with forces allied to the Fatah movement, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank and serves as the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

Israel, the US, the EU, Canada, Egypt, and Japan have declared the group a terrorist organisation.

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