What is Hamas and why is it fighting with Israel in Gaza?

Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented assault on Israel from the Gaza Strip on 7 October, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages.

The Israeli military responded with air strikes on Gaza, and launched a ground offensive. More than 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run government.

During a temporary truce that lasted seven days at the end of November, Hamas released 105 hostages and Israel freed 240 Palestinian prisoners in exchange.

In the 10 weeks since the 7 October attacks, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warplanes have carried out air strikes across Gaza while its troops have moved through the territory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel has a “clear goal of destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities”, as well as freeing the hostages.

He has also declared that Israel will have “overall security responsibility” for Gaza “for an indefinite period” after the conflict. However, he has said Israel has no plans to reoccupy the territory.

Israel has drafted 300,000 reservists for the operation, to boost its standing force of 160,000.

The IDF says it has struck more than 22,000 targets since the beginning of the war with Hamas – which Israel, the UK, US and other Western powers class as a terrorist organisation.

It also says it has destroyed more than 800 tunnel shafts built underneath Gaza. Hamas previously claimed that its tunnel network stretches for 500km (310 miles).

Satellite images suggest that nearly 100,000 buildings in Gaza may have been damaged during the fighting.

After the temporary truce ended, Israeli troops pushed into southern Gaza and began what the IDF called “aggressive” action against Hamas and other armed groups in and around the city of Khan Younis.

Israel also carried out many air strikes on Rafah, near the Egyptian border, where it previously told residents of Khan Younis to flee.

Fierce fighting continues in the north, around the Jabalia refugee camp and the eastern Shejaiya district of Gaza City. The UN estimates that 100,000 civilians remain in the north, completely isolated from relief efforts.

Israel claims to have killed thousands of Hamas fighters during the war, including many commanders.

The IDF says 134 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the start of the ground offensive on 27 October. In total, 466 soldiers have been killed since 7 October, the vast majority of them during Hamas’s attacks that day.

During the 7 October attacks, Hamas took about 240 hostages, who it said were hidden in “safe places and tunnels” within Gaza.

According to Israel, more than 30 of the hostages were children, and at least 10 were aged over 60. It also said about half of the hostages had foreign passports from 25 different countries.

Under a deal brokered by Qatar, a seven-day pause in fighting began on 24 November.

During the truce, 81 Israelis and dual nationals, along with 24 foreigners, were released. In return for the Israeli hostages, 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails were freed.

The released hostages included:

Hamas released four Israeli hostages before the truce agreement, and another was freed by Israeli forces.

Israeli troops mistakenly shot dead three hostages who were displaying a white flag in Gaza on 15 December.

It is thought about 120 people are still in captivity.

Hamas has said other armed groups in Gaza are holding hostages, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad. This could complicate future releases.

Each side blamed the other for the collapse of the temporary truce and resumption of fighting on 1 December.

Mr Netanyahu said Hamas had not “met its obligation to release all of the women hostages” and “launched rockets at Israeli citizens”.

Hamas said Israel had refused “to accept all offers to release other hostages”.

On 13 December, the UN General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza, as well as the “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”.

Five days earlier, the US had vetoed a similar draft resolution at the UN Security Council, saying a ceasefire would allow Hamas to regroup.

However, there are signs that a new pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas could be possible.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said on Tuesday that his country was “ready for another humanitarian pause” to allow more hostages to be released.

The next day, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh flew to Cairo for talks on a potential deal.

As well as the more than 20,000 people reported killed, the Hamas-run health ministry says 52,600 people have been injured since the start of the war.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says only nine out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are still partially functional, all of them in the south. These hospitals are operating at three times their capacity, while facing critical shortages of basic supplies and fuel for their generators.

Mr Netanyahu has admitted that Israel has been “not successful” in minimising civilian casualties, but says Hamas has been using Gaza’s civilians as human shields.

Food is scarce in Gaza and prices have soared, meaning many people are unable to afford staples such as flour. A lack of power makes cooking difficult.

Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has said that 1.9 million Gaza’s residents – about 85% of the population – have been displaced and that 1.4 million of them are sheltering in its facilities.

Many of them fled the fighting in the north after an Israeli order to move south of the Wadi Gaza river valley for their own safety.

The UN has warned that hundreds of thousands of displaced people are now squeezed into extremely overcrowded spaces with dire living conditions in Rafah. It estimates that there are at least 486 people for every toilet at UN shelters in the area.

Israel’s military published an online map with Gaza split into more than 600 blocks, showing areas where people should evacuate for their own safety.

But Unicef, the UN charity for children, warned that some of the “safe” zones are “tiny patches of barren land” with no water, sanitation or shelter.

Tens of thousands have fled to Rafah.

After the 7 October attacks, Israel shut its border crossings with Gaza, preventing the usual supplies of food, water, and medicine from entering the territory.

Israel allowed limited aid deliveries to resume via the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing on 21 October. However, the UN says the number of lorries entering each day has been about a fifth of the daily average of 500 before the war.

Israel has severely limited supplies of fuel, arguing that it could be stolen by Hamas and used for military purposes.

Fuel shortages have meant that water pumps and desalination plants, waste and sanitation services, and many bakeries have been unable to function.

On 17 December, Israel reopened the Kerem Shalom goods crossing with Gaza, allowing another route for aid to enter the territory.

However, the UN says it is struggling to distribute aid beyond the Rafah area because of a number of factors.

These include a shortage of lorries within Gaza, the lack of fuel, ongoing telecommunications blackouts and the inability of staff to travel safely due to the intense fighting in the south.

Hundreds of foreign passport holders – including some British and US citizens – and seriously wounded and sick Palestinians have been able to leave through Rafah, but many remain.

On 7 October, hundreds of Hamas gunmen crossed from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, breaking through the heavily guarded perimeter fence, landing by sea, and using paragliders.

It was the most serious cross-border attack against Israel in more than a generation.

The gunmen killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in a series of raids on military posts, kibbutzim and a music festival, and took hostages back into Gaza.

The BBC has also seen and heard evidence of rape, sexual violence and mutilation of women during the Hamas attacks, Victims included children, teenagers and pensioners.

The attacks came at a time of soaring Israeli-Palestinian tensions: 2023 has been the deadliest on record for Palestinians who live in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Hamas is a Palestinian group which has run Gaza since 2007.

The name is an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, which means Islamic Resistance Movement.

The group wants to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamic state.

Its military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, is thought to have about 30,000 members.

Hamas has fought several wars with Israel since it took power, firing thousands of rockets into Israel and carrying out other deadly attacks.

In response, Israel has repeatedly attacked Hamas with air strikes, sending in troops in 2008 and 2014.

Hamas – or in some cases the al-Qassam Brigades – has been designated a terrorist group by Israel, the US, the EU and the UK, as well as other powers.

Iran backs the group, providing funding, weapons and training.

The Gaza Strip is a 41km (25-mile) long and 10km-wide territory located between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.

Previously occupied by Egypt, Gaza was captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War.

Israel withdrew its troops and around 7,000 settlers from the territory in 2005.

Home to 2.2 million people, the narrow strip is one of the most densely-populated areas in the world.

Just over three-quarters of Gaza’s population – some 1.7 million people – are registered refugees or descendants of refugees, according to the UN.

Before the latest conflict, more than 500,000 people lived in eight refugee camps located across the Strip.

Israel controls the air space over Gaza and its shoreline, and strictly limits the movement of people and goods.

The West Bank and Gaza are known as the Palestinian territories. Along with East Jerusalem and Israel, they formed part of a land known as Palestine from Roman times until the mid-20th Century.

In 1948, part of Palestine became Israel, which was recognised by the United Nations the following year. The West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza are recognised as Palestine by many countries and bodies, although it does not have member status at the UN.

Those who do not recognise Israel’s right to exist also still refer to all of the land as Palestine.

The Palestinian president is Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen. He is based in the West Bank, which is under Israeli occupation.

He has been the leader of the Palestinian Authority (PA) since 2005, and represents the Fatah political party – a bitter rival of Hamas.