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The UN comes up with a partition plan to split up the land in Palestine and divide it into two states, an independant palestine and an independant Israel.
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In May 1948 Israel declared itself a state with western support. Following this the newly crisened Israel fought several wars against arab countries who supported the Palestinians because their land had been taken.
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The Arab league refused to recognize Israel as a legitimate state and the waged war shortly after to try and drive them out, with the aid of the Palestinians. After the war the group splintered and from it sprang the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization), which Hamas is loosely affiliated with, and Fatah, who is the opposing group to Hamas politically.
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Hamas was formed as a faction of the Muslim Brotherhood in order to drive out the Isareli occupants from Palestine and then to establish an independant Palestine. Sheik Ahmed Yassin Confirmed this.
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Intifada is an Arabic word meaning "shaking off". The first Intifada was a name for the uprising of the Palestinians against the Israeli occupants. This was also the begining of the PLO and was around the same time that Hamas was registered as an Islamic association.
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In the morning of that day, a suicide bomber blew himself up. It was one of the first bombings Hamas claimed responsibility for. In the attack 17 civilians and 9 Israeli soldiers were killed, as well as another 48 injured, who were mostly civilians.
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The second intifada began when tensions broke because of the poor economic conditions in the Gaza strip and the West Bank. This happened because of various security measures that Israel took against the areas and the Palestinians broke, resulting in the death of almost 5000 palestinians and 1000 Israelis.
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In the summer of 2005, Israel withdrew forces from gaza. The Hamas leaders regarded this as a large victory however skirmishes still continue in the area.
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Hamas won the election of 2006 in the Palestinian territories, however their power was taken from them when Fatah, the main group oppozing them, seized the west bank.
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After an informal cease fire, Hamas fired rockets into southern Israel in apparent resonse to air strikes killing 6 palestinians. The rockets also killed six Israelis. Israel let out stern warnings and it's possible for a large scale escalation to occur in the area.
