The Gaza war has pushed together powerful Iran-backed Shia Muslim paramilitaries with militant Sunni factions in what appears to be closer cooperation between groups that differ in religious ideology but are united by opposition to Israel and the United States.
Hamas, which launched the attacks on Israel two months ago that sparked the war, is a primarily Sunni Muslim Palestinian movement. The group — whose name is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement — is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, the powerful Islamist movement that was founded in Egypt in the 1920s.
Hamas itself was founded in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian cleric who was living in Gaza. Yassin was assassinated by Israel in 2004. The group he founded won elections in Gaza two years later and the following year seized control from the Palestinian Authority. Egypt and Israel responded by blockading Gaza.
Lebanese Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim movement, emerged during the country's civil war after Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Its fighters have been trained and funded partly by Iran, which uses armed proxy groups to extend its power in the region. Apart from Hamas, it poses the biggest challenge to Israel. Hezbollah and Israeli forces have attacked each other across the Lebanese-Israeli border since the war in Gaza began in October.
Both Hezbollah and Hamas are designated terrorist organizations by Israel, the United States, the European Union and others.
"I think in the recent events there is definitely more communication between these groups," says Sajad Jiyad, a Baghdad-based analyst with The Century Foundation think tank. Jiyad and other analysts pointed to recent meetings between Hamas and Hezbollah officials and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's increasing engagement with both Shia and Sunni groups outside Lebanon.
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