Hamas: The terror group bent on destroying Israel - and themselves

They were one of the pioneers of the suicide bomb and have waged a decades-long campaign of terror against Israel.

Hamas, founded as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, took control of Gaza after winning a shock election there in 2006 and now rules with an iron fist.

On Saturday, they led an attack into Israel which killed at least 1,200 people - most of them civilians - with such brutality that the terror group is now being compared to ISIS.

Their goal seems to have been to provoke Israel into a devastating ground war in Gaza in order to derail a new peace effort and send the Middle East spiralling back into conflict.

These are the deep contradictions at the heart of Sunni Hamas, their perhaps unlikely allies in Shia Iran, and how - together - they threaten to destabilise the world.

#dailymail #israel #hamas

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