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Israeli forces split Gaza in two
Israeli forces split Gaza in two
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7810896.stm
Fighting is raging into the night in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli ground forces and heavy armour have effectively cut the territory in two.
Supported by a naval, air and land bombardment, they have taken up positions on either side of Gaza City and along a major east-west road.
About 40 tanks were moving towards Khan Younis in the south, reports say.
Palestinian officials say 70 people have been killed in the ground assault. One Israeli soldier has been killed.
We had to squash [the injured into the ambulance]... on top of each other, including the dead man, just to get them to some sort of place of safety
Sharon Lock
activist in Gaza with Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement
Earlier, US Vice-President Dick Cheney defended the Israeli ground offensive, saying air attacks were not enough to destroy rocket sites. He also said Israel had not sought US approval launching it.
Israeli President Shimon Peres rejected calls for a ceasefire, but said his country did not intend to re-occupy Gaza or crush Hamas.
The senior Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said the Israeli offensive was destroying the Middle East peace process and will only strengthen extremists in the region.
An EU mission has flown to the region. The bloc's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said the crisis represented a failure of diplomacy.
At least 32 missiles were fired into southern Israel from Gaza on Sunday. Two people were lightly wounded in the Eshkol region, while one woman was slightly injured in Sderot.
'Face-to-face battles'
If the incursion towards Khan Younis is confirmed, it marks a new development as until now, the Israeli ground assault has been concentrated in the north.
As night fell, blackouts plunged much of Gaza into darkness. However, the flashes of explosions could be seen from the northern border, and the regular sounds of gun and artillery fire heard.
Analysis: Israeli pride at a cost
In pictures: Gaza ground offensive
Map: Attacks day by day
Gaza voices: Living with conflict
During the day, the fighting appeared to move away from the northern end of the territory, towards more populous areas in the west, correspondents say.
Later, Israeli military sources and witnesses said Israeli tanks and heavy armour had taken up positions on either side of Gaza City, in effect cutting Gaza into two parts, from the Karni crossing to the Mediterranean Sea.
The town of Beit Hanoun was also reportedly surrounded.
Hamas officials and witnesses report major fighting in five areas: east of the Jabaliya refugee camp; in the Zeitoun area; near the site of the former Jewish settlement of Netzarim; in the centre of Gaza; and on the outskirts of Khan Younis.
Hamas said its fighters were in some cases engaged in "face-to-face battles" with Israeli soldiers.
Earlier, the Israeli military said the militants were not engaging its troops in close combat but using mortars and improvised bombs.
The Palestinian health ministry says 509 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed since the Israelis began their assault on Gaza eight days ago.
It says 21 of the 70 people killed since the beginning of the ground offensive were children. Some 2,500 people have reportedly also been wounded.
The figures could not be independently verified. Israel is refusing to let international journalists into Gaza despite a ruling by its a supreme court to admit a limited number of reporters.
Hamas officials say that 10 of its fighters have so far been killed.
The Israeli military says one of its soldiers has been killed and 34 wounded in the ground offensive, three of them seriously. It believes about 80% of the Palestinians killed were Hamas members.
Battle to save injured
The BBC's Rushdi Abu Alouf in Gaza City says the fighting and Israeli positions have stopped desperately needed medical supplies getting through to hospitals that are struggling to cope with the casualties.
Decision of arms not diplomacy
Brown urges end to Gaza violence
Aid worker diary: Part eight
Hamas set for bitter battle
Many agencies say deliveries have been insufficient, and that it is difficult to get supplies to where they are most needed.
Sharon Lock, an activist with the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led organisation which campaigns against Israel's actions, told the BBC she had watched medical crews in Gaza working under terrible conditions:
"I went to one house where about four people had been injured," she said.
"One was completely killed, his legs were mangled and he'd lost a foot. There was a three-year-old child in the house that was injured, there were two men in their thirties who had severe internal injuries and we had to put them all in the one ambulance.
"We had to squash them in, you know, on top of each other, including the dead man, just to get them to some sort of place of safety."
An Israeli army spokesman, Capt Guy Spiegelman, told the BBC Hamas, not Israel, was to blame for causing civilians to suffer.
"If they just would stop firing those rockets, we wouldn't be in this situation," he said.
"If they would place their rockets - not amongst civilian population, but in open areas - then the civilians wouldn't need to suffer," the Israeli officer added.
Israel vows no let-up over Gaza
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7811054.stm
Israel launched further aerial attacks overnight as more tanks moved in
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has said Palestinian militant group Hamas had sustained a "hard blow", but the offensive in Gaza would continue.
"We still haven't reached our objectives," Mr Barak told Israeli MPs.
Israel carried out 30 air strikes overnight, with heavy clashes reported east of Gaza City. Palestinian sources say a family of seven were killed.
A top Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Mahmoud Zahhar, said the Islamists were heading to "victory" against Israel.
Intense diplomatic efforts are under way to try to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, with separate missions to the Middle East being led by the French president, and a high-level EU team.
The Palestinian medical sources say the death toll stands at more than 500, with some 2,500 people wounded.
Five Israelis have been killed in Palestinian militant rocket attacks since the start of the Israeli incursion, which is now in its 10th day.
"The fundamental objective is to change the reality of security for the south," Mr Barak said, referring to Israeli towns that have come under Palestinian rocket attack from Gaza.
Mr Zahhar praised Hamas fighters and urged them to "crush your enemy", in a speech aired on Hamas-run al-Aqsa TV.
He also hinted that Palestinian militants would try to target more Israeli civilians, saying Israelis had "legitimised the killing of their people all over the world when they killed our people".
Who are Hamas?
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45344000/jpg/_45344656_002035...
The high-point in Hamas's fortunes came with their January 2006 election victory
photo
Hamas takes its name from the Arabic initials for the Islamic Resistance Movement.
Branded a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU, it is seen by its supporters as a legitimate fighting force defending Palestinians from a brutal military occupation.
It is the largest Palestinian militant Islamist organisation, formed in 1987 at the beginning of the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israel's occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.
The group's short-term aim has been to drive Israeli forces from the occupied territories. To achieve this it has launched attacks on Israeli troops and settlers in the Palestinian territories and against civilians in Israel.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41271000/jpg/_41271790_hamasp...
Profile: Mahmoud Zahhar,Profile: Ismail Haniya photos
It also has a long-term aim of establishing an Islamic state on all of historic Palestine - most of which has been contained within Israel's borders since its creation in 1948.
For years the organisation was divided into two main spheres of operation:
social programmes like building schools, hospitals and religious institutions
militant operations carried out by Hamas' underground Iss al-Din Qassam Brigades.
But it became increasingly involved in Palestinian factional politics, both in the occupied territories and with a political branch in exile.
One of its leaders-in-exile, Khalid Meshaal, was the target of a bungled Israeli assassination attempt in Jordan in 1997.
King Hussein was outraged by Israel's action and was only placated when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu released Hamas's jailed spiritual leader and founder
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39131000/jpg/_39131772_yassin...
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. obituary photo
While King Hussein tolerated Hamas's presence, his successor King Abdullah II had the group's headquarters closed down and senior figures expelled to Qatar.
Hamas has remained outside the main Palestinian political structure of the PLO, but it took part in - and won - Palestinian Authority (PA) legislative elections in the occupied territories in 2006.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45344000/jpg/_45344658_002206...
Hamas has the most effective fighting force among Palestinian militants photo
Veto power
Hamas came to prominence after the first intifada as the main Palestinian opponent of the Oslo accords - the US-sponsored peace process that oversaw the gradual and partial removal of Israel's occupation in return for Palestinian guarantees to protect Israeli security.
Despite numerous Israeli operations against it and clampdowns by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian National Authority, Hamas found it had an effective power of veto over the process by launching suicide attacks.
Hamas has the most effective fighting force among Palestinian militants
In February and March 1996, it carried out several suicide bus bombings, killing nearly 60 Israelis, in retaliation for the assassination in December 1995 of Hamas bomb maker
Yahya Ayyash.
The bombings were widely blamed for turning Israelis off the peace process and bringing about the election of right-winger Mr Netanyahu who was a staunch opponent of the Oslo accords.
In the post-Oslo world, most particularly following the failure of US President Bill Clinton's Camp David summit in the summer of 2000 and the second intifada which followed shortly thereafter, Hamas gained power and influence as Israel steadily destroyed the infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority.
In towns and refugee camps besieged by the Israeli army, Hamas organised clinics and schools which served Palestinians who felt entirely let down by the corrupt and inefficient Palestinian Authority dominated by its secularist rival, Fatah.
The armed struggle
Many Palestinians cheered the wave of Hamas suicide attacks (and those of fellow militants Islamic Jihad and the secular al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade) in the first years of the intifada.
They saw "martyrdom" operations as the best way to avenge their own losses and counter Israel's unchecked settlement building in the West Bank.
After the death of Fatah leader Yasser Arafat in 2004, the Palestinian Authority was taken over by Mahmoud Abbas, a vocal opponent of attacks on Israel.
He viewed Hamas rocket fire, the militants' weapon of choice in recent years, as counterproductive, inflicting little damage on Israel but provoking a harsh response by the Israeli military.
When Hamas scored a landslide victory in the Palestinian Authority legislative elections in 2006, the stage was set for a bitter power struggle with Fatah.
Hamas resisted all efforts to get it to sign up to previous agreements with Israel, as well as to recognise Israel's legitimacy and to give up the armed struggle.
It has remained steadfast to its pledge never to sign up to a permanent ceasefire while Israel occupies Palestinian territory and its troops are responsible for the deaths of Palestinians.
It did, however, offer a 10-year truce in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories: the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
But it has not relinquished its assertion that Palestinian refugees from 1948 should be allowed to return to homes in what has become Israel - a move that threatens Israel's very existence as a Jewish state.
Assassinations
Over the years Hamas has lost many members in Israeli assassinations and security sweeps.
The paraplegic and visually impaired Sheikh Yassin was killed in a missile attack on 22 March 2004.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39131000/jpg/_39131780_bus203...
Israel has paid a price for Hamas' dislike of the peace process photo
Khaled Meshaal, now based in Syria, became the group's overall leader. Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi emerged as Hamas leader in Gaza before he too was assassinated six weeks later on 17 April.
Other prominent Hamas officials killed by the Israelis include Ismail Abu Shanab, in August 2003, and Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades leader Salah Shehada, in July 2002.
Shehada's successor, Muhammad Deif - whom Israel blames for the 1996 bombings - has escaped several attempts on his life.
More moderate political figures also emerged as significant players within the movement.
One of them was Ismail Haniya, a former aide to Sheikh Yassin, who was appointed to a "collective leadership" in the occupied territories along with the more hardline Mahmoud Zahhar and Said al-Siyam.
Facing the electorate
Hamas's decision to stand in PA legislative council elections in 2006 was a major departure for the movement and had a profound impact on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41232000/jpg/_41232416_moons2...
Election campaigns were a new departure for Hamas leaders
Top figures said the move reflected Hamas's importance in the Palestinian sphere and the need for it to address failing political structures beset by corruption, inefficiency and lost credibility.
It did not, they insisted, imply any acceptance of a two-state solution to the conflict, although Hamas opposition to the Oslo accords had kept it out of previous elections.
Aside from its much-vaunted incorruptibility, Hamas campaigned forcefully on its claim that Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in the summer of 2005 was a victory for its commitment to armed conflict with the Israelis.
But if Hamas leaders thought its parliamentary victory would bestow greater credibility on them in the eyes of the international community - or if they thought in any way that they would be given any more leeway - they were mistaken.
The new government was subjected to tough economic and diplomatic sanctions by Israel and its allies in the West.
Skirmishes in Gaza with the Fatah-dominated PA security forces escalated to all-out war, in which the well-armed and better-disciplined Qassam Brigades eventually ousted their rivals in May 2007.
Hamas security control made Gaza a more calm and orderly place than it had been for months. But Israel tightened its blockade on the Strip and - despite a multilateral ceasefire in June 2008 - rocket fire and Israeli raids continued to provide provocations for more violence by each side.
And on the diplomatic level, the Palestinians faced their biggest set-back for decades.
With Hamas in charge of Gaza and the pro-Fatah PA operating in the West Bank - and neither side engaging properly with the other - the aspiration of an independent Palestinian seemed further away than ever.
Blazing ground offensive photos:
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45345000/jpg/_45345078_gaza04...
Fighting is still raging in the northern half of the Gaza Strip, a day after Israel sent in troops and tanks to tackle militants who have been firing rockets into southern Israel.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45345000/jpg/_45345079_gaza04...
A BBC correspondent says the fighting now appears to have moved deeper into the territory, with Israeli forces dividing it into two.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45345000/jpg/_45345080_gaza04...
The Israeli ground operation is being supported by intensive aerial, land and naval bombardment of Gaza.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45345000/jpg/_45345081_gaza04...
The Palestinian health ministry says more than 500 Palestinians have now been killed since the Israelis began their assault on Gaza eight days ago, and 70 since the ground offensive began.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45345000/jpg/_45345082_gaza04...
UN officials say Palestinian hospitals are struggling to cope with the casualties and are short of vital medical supplies.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45345000/jpg/_45345083_gaza04...
Israel says one of its soldiers has been killed and 34 wounded since the ground offensive began.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45345000/jpg/_45345084_gaza04...
Israel says its offensive has reduced the number of rocket attacks substantially. However, at least 30 rockets were fired on Sunday.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45345000/jpg/_45345088_gaza04...
International calls for a ceasefire have so far been ignored.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7810896.stm
Fighting is raging into the night in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli ground forces and heavy armour have effectively cut the territory in two.
Supported by a naval, air and land bombardment, they have taken up positions on either side of Gaza City and along a major east-west road.
About 40 tanks were moving towards Khan Younis in the south, reports say.
Palestinian officials say 70 people have been killed in the ground assault. One Israeli soldier has been killed.
We had to squash [the injured into the ambulance]... on top of each other, including the dead man, just to get them to some sort of place of safety
Sharon Lock
activist in Gaza with Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement
Earlier, US Vice-President Dick Cheney defended the Israeli ground offensive, saying air attacks were not enough to destroy rocket sites. He also said Israel had not sought US approval launching it.
Israeli President Shimon Peres rejected calls for a ceasefire, but said his country did not intend to re-occupy Gaza or crush Hamas.
The senior Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said the Israeli offensive was destroying the Middle East peace process and will only strengthen extremists in the region.
An EU mission has flown to the region. The bloc's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said the crisis represented a failure of diplomacy.
At least 32 missiles were fired into southern Israel from Gaza on Sunday. Two people were lightly wounded in the Eshkol region, while one woman was slightly injured in Sderot.
'Face-to-face battles'
If the incursion towards Khan Younis is confirmed, it marks a new development as until now, the Israeli ground assault has been concentrated in the north.
As night fell, blackouts plunged much of Gaza into darkness. However, the flashes of explosions could be seen from the northern border, and the regular sounds of gun and artillery fire heard.
Analysis: Israeli pride at a cost
In pictures: Gaza ground offensive
Map: Attacks day by day
Gaza voices: Living with conflict
During the day, the fighting appeared to move away from the northern end of the territory, towards more populous areas in the west, correspondents say.
Later, Israeli military sources and witnesses said Israeli tanks and heavy armour had taken up positions on either side of Gaza City, in effect cutting Gaza into two parts, from the Karni crossing to the Mediterranean Sea.
The town of Beit Hanoun was also reportedly surrounded.
Hamas officials and witnesses report major fighting in five areas: east of the Jabaliya refugee camp; in the Zeitoun area; near the site of the former Jewish settlement of Netzarim; in the centre of Gaza; and on the outskirts of Khan Younis.
Hamas said its fighters were in some cases engaged in "face-to-face battles" with Israeli soldiers.
Earlier, the Israeli military said the militants were not engaging its troops in close combat but using mortars and improvised bombs.
The Palestinian health ministry says 509 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed since the Israelis began their assault on Gaza eight days ago.
It says 21 of the 70 people killed since the beginning of the ground offensive were children. Some 2,500 people have reportedly also been wounded.
The figures could not be independently verified. Israel is refusing to let international journalists into Gaza despite a ruling by its a supreme court to admit a limited number of reporters.
Hamas officials say that 10 of its fighters have so far been killed.
The Israeli military says one of its soldiers has been killed and 34 wounded in the ground offensive, three of them seriously. It believes about 80% of the Palestinians killed were Hamas members.
Battle to save injured
The BBC's Rushdi Abu Alouf in Gaza City says the fighting and Israeli positions have stopped desperately needed medical supplies getting through to hospitals that are struggling to cope with the casualties.
Decision of arms not diplomacy
Brown urges end to Gaza violence
Aid worker diary: Part eight
Hamas set for bitter battle
Many agencies say deliveries have been insufficient, and that it is difficult to get supplies to where they are most needed.
Sharon Lock, an activist with the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led organisation which campaigns against Israel's actions, told the BBC she had watched medical crews in Gaza working under terrible conditions:
"I went to one house where about four people had been injured," she said.
"One was completely killed, his legs were mangled and he'd lost a foot. There was a three-year-old child in the house that was injured, there were two men in their thirties who had severe internal injuries and we had to put them all in the one ambulance.
"We had to squash them in, you know, on top of each other, including the dead man, just to get them to some sort of place of safety."
An Israeli army spokesman, Capt Guy Spiegelman, told the BBC Hamas, not Israel, was to blame for causing civilians to suffer.
"If they just would stop firing those rockets, we wouldn't be in this situation," he said.
"If they would place their rockets - not amongst civilian population, but in open areas - then the civilians wouldn't need to suffer," the Israeli officer added.
Israel vows no let-up over Gaza
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7811054.stm
Israel launched further aerial attacks overnight as more tanks moved in
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has said Palestinian militant group Hamas had sustained a "hard blow", but the offensive in Gaza would continue.
"We still haven't reached our objectives," Mr Barak told Israeli MPs.
Israel carried out 30 air strikes overnight, with heavy clashes reported east of Gaza City. Palestinian sources say a family of seven were killed.
A top Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Mahmoud Zahhar, said the Islamists were heading to "victory" against Israel.
Intense diplomatic efforts are under way to try to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, with separate missions to the Middle East being led by the French president, and a high-level EU team.
The Palestinian medical sources say the death toll stands at more than 500, with some 2,500 people wounded.
Five Israelis have been killed in Palestinian militant rocket attacks since the start of the Israeli incursion, which is now in its 10th day.
"The fundamental objective is to change the reality of security for the south," Mr Barak said, referring to Israeli towns that have come under Palestinian rocket attack from Gaza.
Mr Zahhar praised Hamas fighters and urged them to "crush your enemy", in a speech aired on Hamas-run al-Aqsa TV.
He also hinted that Palestinian militants would try to target more Israeli civilians, saying Israelis had "legitimised the killing of their people all over the world when they killed our people".
Who are Hamas?
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45344000/jpg/_45344656_002035...
The high-point in Hamas's fortunes came with their January 2006 election victory
photo
Hamas takes its name from the Arabic initials for the Islamic Resistance Movement.
Branded a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU, it is seen by its supporters as a legitimate fighting force defending Palestinians from a brutal military occupation.
It is the largest Palestinian militant Islamist organisation, formed in 1987 at the beginning of the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israel's occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.
The group's short-term aim has been to drive Israeli forces from the occupied territories. To achieve this it has launched attacks on Israeli troops and settlers in the Palestinian territories and against civilians in Israel.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41271000/jpg/_41271790_hamasp...
Profile: Mahmoud Zahhar,Profile: Ismail Haniya photos
It also has a long-term aim of establishing an Islamic state on all of historic Palestine - most of which has been contained within Israel's borders since its creation in 1948.
For years the organisation was divided into two main spheres of operation:
social programmes like building schools, hospitals and religious institutions
militant operations carried out by Hamas' underground Iss al-Din Qassam Brigades.
But it became increasingly involved in Palestinian factional politics, both in the occupied territories and with a political branch in exile.
One of its leaders-in-exile, Khalid Meshaal, was the target of a bungled Israeli assassination attempt in Jordan in 1997.
King Hussein was outraged by Israel's action and was only placated when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu released Hamas's jailed spiritual leader and founder
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39131000/jpg/_39131772_yassin...
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. obituary photo
While King Hussein tolerated Hamas's presence, his successor King Abdullah II had the group's headquarters closed down and senior figures expelled to Qatar.
Hamas has remained outside the main Palestinian political structure of the PLO, but it took part in - and won - Palestinian Authority (PA) legislative elections in the occupied territories in 2006.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45344000/jpg/_45344658_002206...
Hamas has the most effective fighting force among Palestinian militants photo
Veto power
Hamas came to prominence after the first intifada as the main Palestinian opponent of the Oslo accords - the US-sponsored peace process that oversaw the gradual and partial removal of Israel's occupation in return for Palestinian guarantees to protect Israeli security.
Despite numerous Israeli operations against it and clampdowns by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian National Authority, Hamas found it had an effective power of veto over the process by launching suicide attacks.
Hamas has the most effective fighting force among Palestinian militants
In February and March 1996, it carried out several suicide bus bombings, killing nearly 60 Israelis, in retaliation for the assassination in December 1995 of Hamas bomb maker
Yahya Ayyash.
The bombings were widely blamed for turning Israelis off the peace process and bringing about the election of right-winger Mr Netanyahu who was a staunch opponent of the Oslo accords.
In the post-Oslo world, most particularly following the failure of US President Bill Clinton's Camp David summit in the summer of 2000 and the second intifada which followed shortly thereafter, Hamas gained power and influence as Israel steadily destroyed the infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority.
In towns and refugee camps besieged by the Israeli army, Hamas organised clinics and schools which served Palestinians who felt entirely let down by the corrupt and inefficient Palestinian Authority dominated by its secularist rival, Fatah.
The armed struggle
Many Palestinians cheered the wave of Hamas suicide attacks (and those of fellow militants Islamic Jihad and the secular al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade) in the first years of the intifada.
They saw "martyrdom" operations as the best way to avenge their own losses and counter Israel's unchecked settlement building in the West Bank.
After the death of Fatah leader Yasser Arafat in 2004, the Palestinian Authority was taken over by Mahmoud Abbas, a vocal opponent of attacks on Israel.
He viewed Hamas rocket fire, the militants' weapon of choice in recent years, as counterproductive, inflicting little damage on Israel but provoking a harsh response by the Israeli military.
When Hamas scored a landslide victory in the Palestinian Authority legislative elections in 2006, the stage was set for a bitter power struggle with Fatah.
Hamas resisted all efforts to get it to sign up to previous agreements with Israel, as well as to recognise Israel's legitimacy and to give up the armed struggle.
It has remained steadfast to its pledge never to sign up to a permanent ceasefire while Israel occupies Palestinian territory and its troops are responsible for the deaths of Palestinians.
It did, however, offer a 10-year truce in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories: the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
But it has not relinquished its assertion that Palestinian refugees from 1948 should be allowed to return to homes in what has become Israel - a move that threatens Israel's very existence as a Jewish state.
Assassinations
Over the years Hamas has lost many members in Israeli assassinations and security sweeps.
The paraplegic and visually impaired Sheikh Yassin was killed in a missile attack on 22 March 2004.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39131000/jpg/_39131780_bus203...
Israel has paid a price for Hamas' dislike of the peace process photo
Khaled Meshaal, now based in Syria, became the group's overall leader. Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi emerged as Hamas leader in Gaza before he too was assassinated six weeks later on 17 April.
Other prominent Hamas officials killed by the Israelis include Ismail Abu Shanab, in August 2003, and Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades leader Salah Shehada, in July 2002.
Shehada's successor, Muhammad Deif - whom Israel blames for the 1996 bombings - has escaped several attempts on his life.
More moderate political figures also emerged as significant players within the movement.
One of them was Ismail Haniya, a former aide to Sheikh Yassin, who was appointed to a "collective leadership" in the occupied territories along with the more hardline Mahmoud Zahhar and Said al-Siyam.
Facing the electorate
Hamas's decision to stand in PA legislative council elections in 2006 was a major departure for the movement and had a profound impact on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41232000/jpg/_41232416_moons2...
Election campaigns were a new departure for Hamas leaders
Top figures said the move reflected Hamas's importance in the Palestinian sphere and the need for it to address failing political structures beset by corruption, inefficiency and lost credibility.
It did not, they insisted, imply any acceptance of a two-state solution to the conflict, although Hamas opposition to the Oslo accords had kept it out of previous elections.
Aside from its much-vaunted incorruptibility, Hamas campaigned forcefully on its claim that Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in the summer of 2005 was a victory for its commitment to armed conflict with the Israelis.
But if Hamas leaders thought its parliamentary victory would bestow greater credibility on them in the eyes of the international community - or if they thought in any way that they would be given any more leeway - they were mistaken.
The new government was subjected to tough economic and diplomatic sanctions by Israel and its allies in the West.
Skirmishes in Gaza with the Fatah-dominated PA security forces escalated to all-out war, in which the well-armed and better-disciplined Qassam Brigades eventually ousted their rivals in May 2007.
Hamas security control made Gaza a more calm and orderly place than it had been for months. But Israel tightened its blockade on the Strip and - despite a multilateral ceasefire in June 2008 - rocket fire and Israeli raids continued to provide provocations for more violence by each side.
And on the diplomatic level, the Palestinians faced their biggest set-back for decades.
With Hamas in charge of Gaza and the pro-Fatah PA operating in the West Bank - and neither side engaging properly with the other - the aspiration of an independent Palestinian seemed further away than ever.
Blazing ground offensive photos:
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45345000/jpg/_45345078_gaza04...
Fighting is still raging in the northern half of the Gaza Strip, a day after Israel sent in troops and tanks to tackle militants who have been firing rockets into southern Israel.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45345000/jpg/_45345079_gaza04...
A BBC correspondent says the fighting now appears to have moved deeper into the territory, with Israeli forces dividing it into two.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45345000/jpg/_45345080_gaza04...
The Israeli ground operation is being supported by intensive aerial, land and naval bombardment of Gaza.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45345000/jpg/_45345081_gaza04...
The Palestinian health ministry says more than 500 Palestinians have now been killed since the Israelis began their assault on Gaza eight days ago, and 70 since the ground offensive began.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45345000/jpg/_45345082_gaza04...
UN officials say Palestinian hospitals are struggling to cope with the casualties and are short of vital medical supplies.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45345000/jpg/_45345083_gaza04...
Israel says one of its soldiers has been killed and 34 wounded since the ground offensive began.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45345000/jpg/_45345084_gaza04...
Israel says its offensive has reduced the number of rocket attacks substantially. However, at least 30 rockets were fired on Sunday.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45345000/jpg/_45345088_gaza04...
International calls for a ceasefire have so far been ignored.
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~Shalom/Welcome to SHEKINAH~LIFE'¬ Your hosts Jim and Terry Hamilton
B"H.
As The Zohar itself proclaims: "Woe unto those who see in the Law nothing but simple narratives and ordinary words .... Every word of the Law contains an elevated sense and a sublime mystery .... The narratives of the Law are but the raiment within which it is swathed."
Shalom to one and all/.....Your host:
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Rose sharon -shekinahlife
In the beginning of the "Zohar" the Article, the Rose,..it says: "Just as the rose among thorns is…
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