SUMMARY

The justification for Hamas' attacks on Israeli civilians can be found in many of Hamas' statements on the nature of the conflict with Israel. In short the organization views all Israelis as legitimate targets in the struggle to liberate Palestine and destroy the state of Israel. Killing civilians can then be viewed as a natural recourse, a tactic employed to wound the enemy as severely as possible. Suicide bombings have also been reported to be perpetrated as retaliation for Israeli crimes (such as the Israeli settler Goldstein’s massacre in Hebron in 1994) and targeted killings. Justifications reliant on Islamic clerics are also used.

Tactics employed against civilians are mainly stabbing and shooting attacks against settlers, suicide bombings in Israel proper, and the firing of Qassam rockets against Israeli settlement and cities. The firing of Qassam rockets began to blossom following the Second Intifada (which began in September 2000), before which suicide bombings were the main modus operandi of Hamas.

Hamas has operated all through the occupied territories and the settlements upon this land, both in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. However, the bulk of one-sided deaths attributed to Hamas have taken place in Israel, mainly in urban centers (such as Jerusalem), through means of suicide bombings.

Hamas first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1994, when the one-sided violence resulted in more than 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in late May of that year following a spate of lethal suicide bombings.