16. On April 16, 2001, Hamas launched its first rocket into Israel from Gaza.
17. Since the beginning of 2012, over 1,800 rocket hits have been identified in Israeli territory.
18. Hamas deliberately targets Israeli civilians, firing rockets indiscriminately while hiding among its own civilian population – a “double war crime.”
19. Hamas is a Sunni group while it’s primary patron over the years has been the Shi’ite Iran.
20. Iran aids and supports Hamas in the following ways: by transferring enormous sums of money to the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip and to the Hamas movement; by training Hamas operatives in military skills in Iran; by smuggling arms into the Gaza Strip, including the long-range rockets recently used to attack Israeli cities; by transmitting technical-operational know-how used to manufacture and improve the weapons in Hamas’s possession, including increasing the destructive power of the IEDs and homemade rockets used to attack Israel.
21. Hamas’s annual budget was estimated to be some $70 million according to the Council of Foreign Relations.
22. Hamas routinely misinforms its followers. This week, Khaled Meshal falsely claimed to the Palestinian public that Hamas had destroyed Ehud Barak’s home in Tel Aviv. In reality, Israel destroyed the home of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
23. Although Hamas has complained of product shortages in the Gaza Strip, it has focused on smuggling thousands of rockets into the area.
24. Hamas and Fatah have been holding reconciliation talks intermittently since 2008, but have yet to reach a sustainable agreement.
25. “Palestine from the river to the sea, north to south is our land. Not an inch can be conceded. The liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine is a duty, a right and a goal. Holy war and armed resistance are the real and right path to liberation and recovery of rights.” – Khaled Meshal speaking at this week’s Hamas 25 anniversary “celebrations.”
Hamas is not interested in peace or compromise with Israel – the facts speak for themselves.
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Image: CC BY-SA HonestReporting.com, Wikimedia Commons/Trango.
