Story. The october 7th attack by hamas which the u. S. Labels a Terrorist Organization left at least 1400 people dead. More than 200 people are being held hostage according to israeli officials, and many more people are still unaccounted for. In response, israel began a Bombing Campaign in gaza. According to the hamas controlled Health Ministry more than 4,000 people have died there so far. The story of hamas is complex. Its roots date back to the formation of israel in 1948. It has many factions including the socalled Military Wing which perpetrated the terror attack. Over the next hour, cnns sara sidner brings us The Whole Story on hamas from how they were formed, what their ideology is, and how they have evolved over the decades. We want to warn you some of the images youll see in this hour may be disturbing. Pure, unadulterated evil. I cant even try to comprehend these monsters. Terrorists. This is not islam. They should be spit out. We cannot expect that israel will continue to blockade gaza. Deprive them of their freedom and assume they will not at some point resist. At some point it is going to boil over. October 7th was different. October 7th changed everything. What happened ongt 7th was absolutely unprecedented. Hamas has certainly targeted israeli civilians before. Thats not new. What is new is simply the scale and just the ruthlessness. Reporter how do you define hamas . Who and what is hamas . Hamas primarily is a social, religious, political movement. Hamas is seen by most palestinians as part of their social fabric. There are plenty of palestinians who Cannot Stand Hamas but they recognize that some of their neighbors, some of their Family Members are hamas supporters. Hamas has several different aspects to it. It certainly does have a Military Wing, but it also has a political wing. It has social services. It sees itself as a movement. It calls itself the Islamic Movement and the movement is a comprehensive one. Hamas is a nationalist movement thats committed to the notion of Armed Struggle for the liberation of palestine. Out of all the different palestinian factions that exist hamas is the only party that has an organized military and a very well resourced military force. What that means is that for many Palestinians Hamas is the only party that can actually defend Palestinian Civilians against israeli aggression. Thats the reality. That is how many palestinians view and consider them. A line of defense. Since 2007, hamas has governed the gaza strip, a 25 mile long, seven mile wide stretch of land with more than 2 Million People largely cut off from the world by an israeli blockade. An area humanitarian Rights Groups have called an open air prison. But the rise of hamas and what led up to its massacre of more than a thousand men, women, and child in israel is a story that begins long before hamas ever existed. This did not start on october 7th. Reinforcements disembarked to help in the protection of the holy land from disorder. The british had a mandate to protect palestine after world war i and it said a couple things. It said you should prepare the territory for independence but you should also facilitate a Jewish National home. The british try various mechanisms to make them agree on some kind of supplement. The british found they couldnt do both so they gave up. They just left after world war ii and handed the problem over to the. N we cant deal with it. The palestine problem moves into another stage of discussion. Reporter the u. N. Sets up a commission that comes to the conclusion the best solution here is to take this land and divide it, roughly speaking half to the palestinians, half to the israelis. The jews accept that deal. The arabs do not. And so war broke out. Arabs and Jewish Nationals fought each other bitterly and relentlessly. As a result of that war the state of israel declared itself and took control not simply of the territory the u. N. Had allotted to it but some other territory as well. A lot of which had significant palestinian population. The new jewish state israel was born in a bath of blood. The birth of the state of israel for palestinians is called the catastrophe, because in order to pave the way to establish israel as a jewish state there needed to be a mass Ethnic Cleansing of palestinians. More than 700,000 palestinians fled outside of the land of palestine and palestine was essentially decimated. Women flee with what belongings they can carry. Israel said were not allowing them to return. You may have thought you were leaving for a week but youre never coming back. By the end of 1948 a newly formed israel had claimed 78 of the land of historic palestine. The palestinians who hadnt fled to neighboring countries settled in the remaining 22 of land that israel had yet to conquer. What is left is the west bank and gaza. So the egyptians control gaza, the jordanians control the west bank. Thats how it was until the 1967 war. When arab armies are massed on israels border. The frontier of the gaza strip just a mere kilometer away. 1967 is one of the biggest historic moments in the middle east. Israel launches a Surprise Attack against egypt. Israeli forces have routed the armed might of the arab neighbors. The israelis conquer the west bank and gaza. And this is a moment of Great Exhileration in israel because they feel as though they have defeated the arab armies in an extraordinary military success. They have not figured out what theyre going to do with the millions of palestinians on that land. After the six day war the millions who fled to gaza and the west bank in 1948 are officially under Israeli Occupation. Which left all these people in gaza and the west Bank Citizens of nowhere. They werent citizens of the israeli state so they were just stuck. Palestinians began to say we need to liberate ourselves. Throughout the 70s and 80s bursts of violence between palestinians and israelis were common place. The Palestinian Liberation Organization which is formally recognized by the world was led by Yasser Arafat who was operating in exile outside the palestinian territories. But inside Israeli Occupied gaza a new Resistance Movement was under way. The first intefadeh was one of the biggest mobilizations of Palestinian Civil Society and actors against the military occupation. And the idea was they would disrupt the occupation apparatus. They refused to open shops. They blocked highways. They refused to give tax. Twa is a period of significant agitation. Reporter around the same time gaza and the west bank were shifting focus to a more aggressive approach toward their israeli occupiers and a new armed Resistance Group would emerge officially known as hamas. This was a spiritual leader in the gaza strip and was one of the earliest founders and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood chapters in palestine. When hamas was established in 1987 he emerged as the leader of the movement and in some ways the spiritual guide of the movement. Reporter unlike the secular Palestinian Resistance known as fata the newly established hamas was not interested in Liberating Gaza and the west bank alone. Instead it set out to eliminate the state of israel all together as outlined in its 1988 charter. A goal that made hamas an outsider to any peace negotiations, including the oslo accords. The oslo accords really set off earthquakes in both palestinian and israeli society. As our wars are long so must our healing be swift. What it ultimately resulted in was the plo recognized the state of israel and so conceded 78 of the land of historic palestine and in return the Israeli Government recognized the plo as the sole legitimate representative of the palestinian people. There was jubilation globally and many palestinians despite this historic concession believed this might pave the way to the establishment of a state on 22 of their land. But this was by no means noncontroversial or unchallenged. For hamas specifically this was something that they were fundamentally opposed to. Those negotiations never really got off the ground. One of the reasons was this up surge of violence. One of the deadliest attacks to derail peace came in February Of 1994 just months after the signing and historic White House Photo op. A Jewish Settler entered the mosque while muslims were worshiping there. Dozens of dead and scores of injured were rushed to hospitals in nearby towns. That was a Turning Point because hamas then decided to begin employing Suicide Bombing as a form of resistance. Reporter 41 days after the mosque attack, hamas responded, detonating its first lethal suicide attack, killing seven israelis at a bus stop. The Big Reason Oslo failed was violence. The perception on both sides is that their adversary is not serious, israelis saying arafat is not completely stopping terrorism, palestinians say the israelis are dragging their feet on a pull out. They are increasing settlement building even as they are making promises theyre going to leave. The fundamental reason hamas has gained strength is that the Palestinian Authority, which is their competition, has been seen as fekless, corrupt, and unable to deliver on its core promise, which was a palestinian state. Reporter but to the west hamas was not a negotiating partner. Instead, it became a threat. In 1997 the u. S. Officially designated hamas a foreign Terrorist Organization. If you protest nonviolently and so on you are shot at. You are imprisoned. And so they left only one avenue actually, which is armed resistance. Hamas has decided that it is going to use violence. It is going to use violence against civilians. It is going to be brutal. Reporter over the next decade hamas continued its violence and it would meet more violence in return. Will they go home with a deal . The latest from camp david. This wooded maryland retreat of u. S. President s, camp david, was the site of a potentially historic summit in the summer of 2000. You had Yasser Arafat the legendary leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization who had a lot of credibility with palestinians. You had ehud barak, very distinguished Israeli Military figure, now Prime Minister. And you had bill clinton. Reporter their goal . End decades of hostilities, Forge A Palestinian israeli peace accord. If they cannot make progress now there will be more hostility and more bitterness. It seemed as though they had kind of come to an agreement and then arafat pulls out at the last minute best we can tell because he believed that if he did this, hamas would gain power. So the israeli story on camp david is that the israeli Prime Minister offered segue cant concessions and the palestinians said no. The palestinian view was that they were set up at camp david. That israel and the United States made offers they knew that Yasser Arafat could not accept and as a result they were made to look bad. Reporter just two months after those talks failed to get an agreement, a former Israeli Defense minister who many arabs call the butcher of beirut for israels 1982 invasion of lebanon made a provocative, heavily guarded visit to the temple mount. A holy site in christianity, judaism, and islam. It is also a flash point of contention over who should control it. Israelis or arabs . The violence that observers believe to be inevitable erupted. Reporter just the first sparks of what became the second intefadeh, a violent and deadly conflict between israelis and palestinians over Israeli Occupation of the west bank and gaza. The second would last nearly five years. A half decade fight in which hamas became known for their routine use of both terror and destruction. Over time more and more of israel came into range. Reporter Israeli Forces demolished over 4,000 Palestinian Homes and arrested thousands. Israel shut down and bombed ministries and infrastructure trying to coerce palestinian leaders to end the violence. Between 2000 and 2005, there were over 4300 registered fatalities, with a palestinian to israeli ratio of just over 31. Finally, in february, 2005, came this announcement from the Palestinian Authority and israel. We have agreed with the Prime Minister ariel sharon to cease all acts of violence. Reporter later that year, israel unilaterally began implementing its socalled disengagement plan to evacuate israels settlements. And military posts from gaza and a section of the west bank. Thousands of settlement residents lost their homes. It was both a physical but also a psychological disengagement on behalf of the israelis from gaza. It was no longer their problem. There was a very, very difficult, painful step for israel to take, to pull settlers out. And how did palestinians respond . By Shooting Rockets and there is some truth to that. Its also true, though, that when israel pulled out of gaza, it continued to envelope it in a blockade. Reporter a blockade to isolate hamas and attempt to prevent smuggling of weapons, but it also severely limited the transport of basic necessities for palestinian citizens in gaza. The blockade was quite horrific. There was an immediate collapse in the quality of life in gaza. Medicines, food items, water, all of the items of a normal life were immediately suspended. And the Immediate Impact was a significant increase in poverty and destitution. The years leading up to the Palestinian Elections in 2006 saw an unprecedent et wave of violence. I remember being in the city where i was raising my young son and feeling unsafe to simply go out about my daily life in the streets. Reporter from gaza, hamas continued to terrorize israel. So israel was operating under the assumption despite 2 million palestinians being imprisoned it could still expect calm. What hamas was doing was during this period shattering that illusion so every few months if not years it would try a rocket in order to force israel to reconsider. Reporter in 2006, nearly a year after the announcement of the ceasefire elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council were held in gaza. This smelly, bleak tunnel reporter cnns chief International CorrespondentChristiane Amanpour covered that election and the aftermath. It was very clear that election was insisted upon by the administration of george w. Bush and Condoleezza Rice and that group of americans who believed that the iraq war of 2003 would bring democracy to the wider middle east. This was a very flawed assumption. And the americans insisted on this election even though the israelis and the Palestinian Authority, the legitimate, internationally accepted and recognized Palestinian Authority, warned the United States not to let this election go ahead because they feared the hamas would prevail and that is exactly what happened. Reporter the Hamas Victory was resounding, winning 76 of 132 seats in the legislature. Shocking results for the u. S. And israeli officials, bringing to power a group the United States had designated as a Terrorist Organization. But a group that had been making a difference in the lives of every day palestinians. For many palestinians, hamas is a life line. For two decades theyve built a Grass Roots Network of affordable social Services Like this Medical Clinic that charges 2 a visit. They provided education. They were very well entrenched with the citizens and civilians. So that is one of the reasons why hamas won in gaza in 2006. So after the 2006 election and Hamas Victory there are questions on the scope of hamas power, is it still under the Palestinian Authority or is it independent . There are questions about who runs particular parts of gaza. In effect it effectively does a coup. Reporter the coup in 2007 known as the Battle Of Gaza was relatively bri