In the last two weeks, one of the two main political forces in the Palestinian territories—Hamas—seized control of the Gaza Strip, violently ousting Fatah, the other powerful political faction.

 

Gaza is one of two Palestinian territories nestled alongside Israel. The other, the West Bank, is still controlled by Fatah.

 

 

After the seizure, President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and leader of the Palestinian Authority, dismissed the unity government and its prime minister, Ismail Haniya of Hamas, and named an emergency government.

 

 

The United States and the European Union then threw its support to Abbas, unleashing millions of dollars in aid to Fatah, which had been frozen since last year when Hamas won control of their Parliament.

 

Hamas explained, briefly

HAMAS is an Islamist militant group that was founded in the Gaza Strip in 1987. Its charter calls for the destruction of Israel and seeks a Palestinian state that would include all of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.

 

 

The group has conducted hundreds of suicide and other attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers since the late 1980s, and is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the EU, among others. However, Hamas also provides crucial social services in the Gaza Strip, operating schools, healthcare clinics, and cultural programs, making the group popular among residents.

 

 

Fatah explained, briefly

FATAH is a political group with military offshoots. It seeks to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza but recognizes Israel’s right to exist. Former Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat founded the group as a faction within the PLO. The group later formed the core of the Palestinian Authority, which in the 1990s was established to govern the occupied territories and move them toward statehood.

 

Ideologically Fatah is generally socialist and relatively secular, but regarded by many as corrupt—one reason Hamas won control of the Parliament last year.

 

The big picture

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas are set to meet next week to discuss the situation in Gaza. And some are hopeful that their talks could set the Palestinians on a path toward eventual statehood. However, Hamas and Fatah—each now controlling half of the Palestinian territories—have very different ideas of how a state would look, making a historically complicated situation all the more challenging.