June 30, 2003	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 29,1424

AL QUDS: The hardline Palestinian group Hamas, which announced on Sunday it was suspending for three months its campaign of suicide bombings and other attacks against Israel, is one of the most vehement opponents of the Jewish State and champion of the Palestinian street.

The popularity of Hamas, which is an acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, has risen dramatically since the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, which broke out 33 months ago and claimed nearly 3,400 lives, more three quarters of them Palestinian.

Hamas has long played the role of “spoiler” in any process attempting to bring peace to the Middle East, notably through the suicide attacks of its military wing Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades.

Throughout the uprising, Hamas, which completely rejects the right of Israel to exist, has carried out the majority of such attacks against Israeli targets, and become the Jewish state’s most formidable enemy.

The movement was founded at the start of the first intifada (1987-1993) by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a blind and wheelchair-bound religious leader who was, at the time, a Gaza-based leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, a religious and political organization founded in Egypt in the 1920s.

Although the attacks carried out by Hamas’ armed wing have received widespread publicity, the group’s political arm, which runs a very active charity network, has gained the group unprecedented popularity.—AFP