GAZA CITY: Hamas, which has scored a dramatic victory in the Palestinian election, is the main Palestinian Islamist movement and has long sought the destruction of Israel.

Branded a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union, the Islamic resistance movement nevertheless enjoys massive grassroots support for its fight against the Jewish state and its welfare programmes.

Hamas will now have to confront the political reality of forming a new government after stunned officials in the long dominant Fatah movement of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat conceded defeat in Wednesday’s election.

It was the first time Hamas had contested a parliamentary poll, although its victory follows successes last year in municipal elections and comes amid deep rifts in Fatah between the old guard and a new younger generation.

The Islamist movement was founded in 1987, shortly after the beginning of the first uprising against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, from ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Its short-term goal is to drive Israeli troops from the occupied territories — it says its resistance led to the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 — while its long-term aim is to establish an Islamic state on pre-1948 borders.

Since its formation, Hamas has claimed responsibility for numerous suicide attacks against Israeli civilians. The group has in turn has lost many members of its leadership in attacks by the Israeli military and security sweeps.

In the biggest blows, its spiritual leader and founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and his successor Abdelaziz Rantissi, were assassinated by Israeli government in air strikes in early 2004.

Yassin had been arrested by Israel in 1989 in a mass roundup of Hamas members but was released eight years later in exchange for two agents from Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

The two agents had been held by Jordan after a botched attempt to assassinate the head of Hamas’ political wing, Khaled Meshaal, now the group’s overall leader, based in Damascus.

While its rival Islamic Jihad is considered a small military organization, Hamas over the years has gained power and influence by developing a vast network of social aid and welfare programmes.

It is vehemently opposed to the 1993 Oslo peace accords that call for Israel to withdraw from virtually all Palestinian territories and for the Palestinians to cease attacks against the Jewish state.

In February and March 1996, Hamas claimed responsibility for a series of suicide bus bombings that killed more than 50 people in Israel. The attacks led to a breakdown in the peace process and brought about the election of hardline Israeli rightwinger Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister.

The military branch of Hamas, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, stepped up its campaign of suicide bombings after the latest intifada started in September.

However it was a partner to a truce agreed with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in March 2005. Although it refused to extend the agreement after it expired at the end of the year, it has yet to launch any attacks since.

Its decision to participate in the parliamentary election was seen as a sign of growing pragmatism. Its chief candidate, Ismail Haniya, is a shrewd strategist on the moderate wing of the movement.

Hamas even launched its own television station, Al-Aqsa Television, earlier this month with a brief to broadcast news bulletins and political and social programmes.

It was later ordered closed by the Palestinian Authority as it did not have a licence.—AFP