Palestine party
Hamas
حركة المقاومة الإسلاميةIslamist political and militant movement, governing Gaza since 2007.
- Founded
- 1987
- Current leader
- leadership in flux post-2024
- Founders
- Sheikh Ahmed Yassin; Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi; Mahmoud Zahar
Position — compass as of 2026-06-08
First-pass hand-coded estimate; pending second-pass external review. See methodology for the rubric.
Across the dataset
Open full comparison →Nearest
Closest by average Euclidean distance across all axes.
Most divergent
Farthest by the same metric. Useful for "anti-axis" framing.
Position — all axes
Briefs about Hamas
Comparative political-science briefs pairing this party with others. 5 briefs on file.
- Hamas vs. Fatah PS The Palestinian split. Fatah's secular-nationalist PLO doctrine vs Hamas's Islamist resistance frame — the same national project across very different registers.
- Hamas vs. Freedom and Justice Party EG Brotherhood electoral vs Brotherhood armed. Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's 2011 electoral vehicle against the Palestinian Brotherhood branch that became Hamas. Same religious-political tradition, two political ecologies.
- Hamas vs. Hezbollah LB The axis of resistance, by sect. Iranian-backed Shia Islamist party-army against Muslim Brotherhood-rooted Sunni Islamist resistance movement. Allies against the same adversary, doctrinally distinct in almost every other respect.
- Hamas vs. Likud IL The headline cleavage. Israel's Jewish-nationalist mainstream right against the Palestinian Islamist resistance movement. Two parties that don't recognise the other's right to exist on the same land.
- Hamas vs. Palestinian Islamic Jihad PS Palestinian armed Islamism, by lineage. Hamas's Brotherhood roots against PIJ's Khomeinist-revolutionary doctrine. Allied in the field, doctrinally distinct in origin.
Members & affiliated figures
Politicians currently identified with this party — leaders, ministers, MPs, and other active figures. All affiliated politicians →
Recent events
Political events involving this party — formations, mergers, leadership changes, designation shifts. All events at /pulse →
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Gaza ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange deal takes effect
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas-led factions in Gaza took effect on 19 January 2025, in three 42-day phases mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar. The first phase had Hamas release 33 Israeli hostages while Israel freed roughly 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, allowed an aid surge, and began a phased withdrawal. Israel''s cabinet approved the deal on 17 January 2025.
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Yahya Sinwar killed in Rafah
Hamas leader and architect of the 7 October attacks killed in a chance encounter with an Israeli infantry patrol in Tel al-Sultan, Rafah. The killing was confirmed by DNA matching the following day; Israel publicly identified him within 24 hours.
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Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Tehran
Hamas political bureau chief killed by a guided projectile at a Revolutionary Guard guesthouse in Tehran, hours after attending the inauguration of Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian. Israel did not officially claim responsibility; widely attributed.
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October 7 Hamas attack on Israel
Hamas launched a coordinated assault from Gaza on Israeli border communities on 2023-10-07, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. The deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust. Triggered the ongoing Gaza war, the Israel-Hezbollah war, the Houthi Red Sea campaign, and the eventual fall of the Assad regime.
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7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel
Hamas-led infiltration through the Gaza border fence. ~1,200 Israelis killed, ~240 hostages taken. Triggered the subsequent Israeli ground operation in Gaza, the longest and deadliest in the Strip's history.
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Sheikh Jarrah crisis and the May 2021 Gaza war
11-day Israel–Hamas war triggered by clashes over Sheikh Jarrah evictions and Al-Aqsa Mosque police raids during Ramadan. ~250 Palestinians killed, ~13 Israelis killed. First major Israel–Hamas escalation since 2014.
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Operation Protective Edge begins
51-day war between Israel and Hamas. ~2,200 Palestinians killed (UN), ~73 Israelis killed. Triggered by the Hamas kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teens followed by escalation cycle.
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Operation Cast Lead begins
Israeli air operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip — the first of the post-2007 series of large Israel–Hamas military confrontations. Twenty-two days of operations, ~1,400 Palestinians killed, ~13 Israelis killed.
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Battle of Gaza: Hamas takes over
After the 2006 Palestinian legislative election won by Hamas and the breakdown of the unity government, Hamas defeated Fatah forces in Gaza in a week-long armed conflict ending 2007-06-15. Created the Gaza/West Bank political split that persists today: Hamas governs Gaza, Fatah governs the West Bank under occupation.
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Hamas wins Palestinian Legislative Council election
Hamas takes 74 of 132 seats in the PLC election, ending decades of Fatah dominance and precipitating the Western boycott of the PA government. The Battle of Gaza eighteen months later was the direct sequel.
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Israel-Hamas ceasefire negotiations ongoing
Ceasefire and hostage-deal talks between Israel and Hamas mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the US have continued in fits and starts since the war began. Multiple deals have been close to agreement but collapsed over end-state guarantees. Negotiations are an ongoing pressure point on the Israeli coalition.
Declared vs. behavioral
For the axes below, this party's declared position (what the party says in its platform / official rhetoric) diverges from its behavioral position (its record of votes, coalition choices, or public actions). The spread itself is the methodological point — capturing the gap that a single composite score collapses.
- Civil liberties spread: 7.0D: +0.0 B: -7.0 C: -8.0
- Liberal democracy spread: 11.0D: +4.0 B: -7.0 C: -7.0
- Gender equality spread: 2.0D: -4.0 B: -6.0 C: -8.0
Lens spreads are currently hand-coded on a curated set of cases where the gap is well-documented. Document-grounded scoring against the party's own platform documents (declared) and its voting / coalition record (behavioral) will scale this across the dataset. See methodology for the full lens-system roadmap.
On the record
Statements issued by Hamas as an organisation — press releases, manifesto excerpts, platform language — that have passed verification. Each carries a year, the context, and at least one source citation. Browse the full corpus or play the "Who said it?" game.
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Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.
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Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967, to be a formula of national consensus.
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At the heart of these lies armed resistance, which is regarded as the strategic choice for protecting the principles and the rights of the Palestinian people.
Source documents
Texts the scoring pipeline reads — manifestos, speeches, platforms. Each document's verbatim content backs the position score above; the model cites specific phrases from these texts when scoring. All documents →
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Article English 2025-01-19 Gaza ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange deal takes effect (19 Jan 2025)
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian factions in Gaza took effect on 19 January 2025, structured in three 42-day phases and mediated by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar. In the first phase Hamas was…
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Article English 2023-10-07 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel — 'Operation Al-Aqsa Flood' (7 October 2023)
On 7 October 2023, Hamas led a surprise attack from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel — which it named 'Operation Al-Aqsa Flood' — together with other Palestinian armed groups. About 1,200 people were killed in…
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Arabic 2017-05-01 Hamas 2017 Document of General Principles and Policies (English translation of Arabic original)
18. The following are considered null and void: the Balfour Declaration, the British Mandate Document, the UN Palestine Partition Resolution, and whatever resolutions and measures that derive from them or are similar to…
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Manifesto English 2017-05-01 Hamas — 2017 'Document of General Principles and Policies' (Zionism-not-Jews distinction, formula-of-national-consensus 1967-borders)
From the Hamas Document of General Principles and Policies (Wathiqat al-Mabadi' al-Amma wa-al-Siyasat al-Amma li-Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah — Hamas), issued at a press conference in Doha 1 May 2017 by then-Hamas…
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Party platform English 2006-01-01 Hamas — 'Change and Reform' List 2006 electoral platform (English translation)
The Change and Reform List seeks to build an advanced Palestinian civil society based on political pluralism and the alternation of power, while bearing in mind the heavy occupation. Our Invariables: Islam and…
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Manifesto Arabic 1988-08-18 Hamas Covenant, 18 August 1988 — The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (English translation of Arabic original)
In The Name Of The Most Merciful Allah "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it" (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory). [……
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Manifesto English 1988-08-18 Hamas — 1988 Covenant doctrinal mosaic — Islamic Waqf, jihad-as-individual-duty, anti-negotiation foundational text
From the Hamas Covenant (Mithaq Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah — Hamas), published 18 August 1988, foundational charter of the Islamic Resistance Movement: On the land of Palestine: 'Palestine is an Islamic Waqf…
Sources
Per-field citations for the verified claims above. Other fields (notably the compass scores) remain hand-coded priors and are marked unverified until they pass the methodology pipeline — see methodology.
- founded_year en.wikipedia.org 2026-06-06 Founded 1987 during the First Intifada
- government_role en.wikipedia.org 2026-06-06 De facto governance of Gaza Strip since June 2007
- founders_text en.wikipedia.org 2026-06-06 Co-founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin (1937-2004)
How to cite
Each record carries a retrieval date because the dataset is live — individual entries update as verification deepens. Use the per-record citation when referencing this specific profile; use the dataset citation below when referencing the project as a whole.
In-text: (Gara, 2026)
Per-record citation
APA 7Reference list · academic default
Gara, T. (2026). Hamas [Party profile]. Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Retrieved June 21, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/p/hamas
Chicago author-dateCommon in political-science journals
Gara, Tarek. 2026. "Hamas." Party profile, Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Accessed June 21, 2026. https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/p/hamas.
BibTeXFor LaTeX / Zotero / reference managers
@misc{tayyar-hamas,
title = {{Hamas}},
author = {Gara, Tarek},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset},
type = {Party profile},
url = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/p/hamas},
urldate = {2026-06-21},
note = {First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.}
} Dataset / working-paper citation
If you're citing Tayyar as a project rather than this individual record.
APA 7Preprint
Gara, T. (2026). Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset [Preprint]. Retrieved June 21, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper
BibTeXPreprint
@unpublished{tayyar-preprint,
title = {{Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset}},
author = {Gara, Tarek},
year = {2026},
type = {Preprint},
url = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper},
urldate = {2026-06-21},
note = {Living document, regenerated from the live dataset on page load.}
} First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.