[6] The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), an umbrella group representing several the most prominent Palestinian nationalist movements in the second half of the 20th century, has also been accused of a number of human rights violations and of waging a terrorist campaign against Israelis.
[7] Hamas is a newer Palestinian nationalist movement, formed as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in the late 1980s, and is politically oriented towards conservative Islamism.
[9][12][13][14][15] Another alternative to the PLO encouraged by Israeli officials was Islamist politician Ahmed Yassin, a Muslim Brotherhood member who ran a network of mosques, clubs, and schools in Gaza.
[17] Former Israeli officials have openly acknowledged Israel's role in providing funding and assistance to Yassin's network as a means of undermining the secular, left-wing Palestinian factions that made up the PLO.
The payments commenced due to the 2017 decision by the Palestinian Authority (PA), an administration in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and rival to Hamas, to cut government employee salaries in Gaza.
[22] After the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Netanyahu went on record denying the claims that he facilitated financing of Hamas in order to create a 'divide and conquer' situation.
[1] In an interview with Politico in 2023, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that "In the last 15 years, Israel did everything to downgrade the Palestinian Authority and to boost Hamas."
[28] Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right lawmaker and finance minister under Netanyahu Government, called the Palestinian Authority a "burden" and Hamas an "asset".
[29] On January 19, 2024, Reuters reported that Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, said while receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Valladolid that "Israel had financed the creation of Palestinian militant group Hamas, publicly contradicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has denied such allegations."
[36] Shlomo Brom [he], retired general and former deputy to Israel's national security adviser, believes that an empowered Hamas helps Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu avoid negotiating over a Palestinian state, suggesting that there is no viable partner for peace talks.