HAMAS
Hamas was created in 1987 at the start of the first Palestinian uprising by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin of the Muslim Brotherhood's Gaza wing. The group's supporters carried out suicide bombings in Israel during the 1990s and early 2000s before agreeing a conditional truce with Israel in 2005. Hamas was elected as the government of the Palestinian people in January 2006. The Islamist group took over the Gaza Strip by force in June 2007 after Fatah refused to hand over control. Hamas is branded as a terrorist organization by the US, EU, Israel and other international countries.
FATAH
Fatah was founded by Palestinian President Abbas and Yasser Arafat in the diaspora in Kuwait in the 1950s and fought an armed struggle against Israeli occupation in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Its leadership only returned to the Palestinian territories after Arafat signed the 1993 Oslo Accords recognizing Israel. Arafat led the party until his death in 2004, while Abbas was elected President in 2005. In the January 2006 parliamentary election, the party lost its majority to Hamas, assuming the role of main opposition.
PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS
Abbas dismissed a Hamas-led national unity government on June 14 and formed an emergency cabinet in the Israeli-occupied West Bank after Hamas seized control of Gaza following a week of fighting with forces loyal to Abbas's secular Fatah movement. Abbas accused Hamas of trying to assassinate him, launched a crackdown against the Islamist group in the West Bank, and issued emergency decrees to consolidate his control. Some of those decrees have drawn fire from lawyers who drafted the interim constitution.
ABBAS'S PRIME MINISTER SALAM FAYYAD
Abbas appointed Fayyad, a Western-backed, U.S.-trained economist, as prime minister of his new government rejected by Hamas. Fayyad has promised to crack down on militants but has said success depends on Israel stopping pursuing the gunmen.
DISMISSED PRIME MINISTER ISMAIL HANIYA
Hamas's Gaza leader Haniya still considers himself prime minister, but faces the problem of running an aid-dependent enclave cut off economically and diplomatically -- not only from Israel and major Western and Arab powers, but also from the West Bank. Haniya and exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal have called for renewed dialogue with Fatah. Israel and Western powers have shunned Hamas.
ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER EHUD OLMERT
Olmert cautiously welcomed the new administration, ending a freeze on transfers of funds imposed last year after Hamas won a parliamentary election and formed a government. He balked at removing major West Bank checkpoints and roadblocks to help Abbas's administration, but is handing over in stages hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen tax funds and has freed 250 Fatah prisoners.
U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE
Rice backed Abbas's decision to install Fayyad. Washington wants to create momentum towards statehood in the hope of bolstering Abbas and Fatah and undercutting support for Hamas. Washington has discussed with Western diplomats the possibility of Palestinian elections by mid-2008.
MIDDLE EAST ENVOY TONY BLAIR
The former British prime minister visited the West Bank and Israel in July for the first time as the new envoy for the Quartet of Middle East mediators -- the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. He is tasked with helping to create a stable Palestinian government and promoting economic development, but reportedly wants to extend his work to restarting peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. |
