The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) was officially established in December 1987 after the then Israeli government, after much hesitation among the various Israeli security agencies, had given it the green light. Originally, the history of this organisation dates back to 1967, when Sheikh Ahmed Yassin founded it as a religious association in the wake of the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
From 1967 to 1987, this religious association gained in popularity through its social welfare services throughout the Gaza Strip. The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and the establishment of Hizbullah in Lebanon encouraged Sheikh Yassin to transform his charitable association into a politico-military organisation similar to Hizbullah. The difference between the two was mainly in the degree of their respective affiliation to Iran and how far they were ready to follow Iranian policies in the Middle East.
Their different sectarian backgrounds were also a major factor in determining how close they were to the new regime in Tehran after the late Ayatollah Khomeini became the country’s Supreme Guide after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Hamas is Sunni, whereas Hizbullah was originally a Shiite military group that later on became a political party.
The two groups were strongly anti-Israel from the start, as well as anti-American, and they aligned themselves entirely with Iranian policies and the directives coming out of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards under the leadership of the late Qassem Suleimani.
In the context of Palestinian politics, Hamas became a competitor, some would say an adversary, of Fatah, the largest and most influential Palestinian group headed by the late Yasser Arafat, and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). This was a determining factor in the Israeli decision in December 1987 to recognise Hamas as a political organisation. Many years later, this Israeli policy of divide and rule bore fruit when Hamas forced Fatah and the Palestinian Authority (PA) established in the Declaration of Principles (the Oslo Accords) signed in September 1993 at the White House in Washington, out of Gaza in June 2007.
Hamas has opposed the Declaration of Principles and ruled Gaza independently of the PA since, particularly after the death of Yasser Arafat in November 2004.
Due to its role in efforts to target Israeli civilians and its rejection of Israel’s right to exist, the US has refused to recognise Hamas and has designated it a terrorist organisation, prohibiting any US contact with the leaders of the group or dealings with it.
However, on 5 March, the White House announced that the US had held talks with Hamas in Qatar on the release of the US hostages in the custody of Hamas in Gaza. The talks are believed to have concerned five American hostages, one of whom is still alive, and the others having lost their lives in captivity. At first, the Israeli government said that it was aware of such contacts. A few days later, it turned out that the contacts with Hamas had gone far beyond just discussions about the US hostages.
In an interview with a Saudi news channel on 9 March, Adam Boehler, the US Envoy for the hostages in Gaza, said that the Trump administration was looking to reach an “understanding with Hamas” through “dialogue.” He told the Saudi channel Al Arabiya that the discussions with Hamas had dealt with the question of a long-term truce in Gaza that would ensure its disarmament, post-war Gaza, and the reconstruction of the Strip.
“We must make sure that members of Hamas will not carry arms once more,” Boehler said. He also told the US network CNN that he believed that an understanding concerning the future of Hamas could be reached in the next few weeks.
Opening direct channels of communication with Hamas is a bold and encouraging sign by the US administration and one that could contribute to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza coupled with the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the demilitarisation of the Strip if Israel does not subject it to a siege similar to the one it has imposed on Gaza from June 2007 until today.
This would mean, in other words, enabling Gaza and its people to live in dignity and freedom from Israeli control over their livelihoods and their future and in the long run ensuring the geographical continuity of the Strip with the West Bank on the road towards an independent Palestinian state as part of a negotiated solution between Israel and the PA.
In the meantime, the objectives of the US contacts with Hamas, as explained by Boehler, are in sync with major elements of the Egyptian-Arab Reconstruction Plan for Gaza that the extraordinary Arab Summit adopted in Cairo on 4 March.
The contacts between the US and Hamas took me back to the late 1980s when the then Reagan administration in the US held talks with the PLO for the first time since its establishment in 1964. This was a significant step that ultimately led to the historic reconciliation between the Palestinians and the Israelis, as symbolised by the signing of the Declaration of Principles (Oslo Accords) and the memorable handshake that took place between Arafat and former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
For the record, the first Arab leader to call for “mutual and simultaneous recognition” between the PLO and Israel was the late Egyptian president Anwar Al-Sadat in his talks with former US president Ronald Reagan in August 1981.
Undoubtedly, the leaders of Hamas have both a political and a moral responsibility to do some soul-searching and find ways to unite with the Palestinian political mainstream and entirely decouple their relations with Iran if they want to spare the innocent people of Gaza a repeat of a devastating Israeli war like the one that they endured from October 2023 until the ceasefire in January this year.
Perhaps direct contacts between the Trump administration and Hamas could pave the way to a grand bargain for security and peace in Gaza between the Palestinians and the Israelis in the not-too-distant future.
The writer is former assistant foreign minister.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 13 March, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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