# Hamas

> a Palestinian Islamist political and armed organization that has exercised de facto governing authority in Gaza and is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, and other jurisdictions

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Stable ID | `node:kiduna:political-change:israel-palestine:hamas` |
| Family | Israel / Palestine |
| Domain | Contested History |
| Kind | field |
| Archetypal function | The Unresolved Homeland |
| Epistemic status | synthesis; supported |

## Concrete anchor

Hamas belongs to the **Israel / Palestine** family. It is treated as a specific political object, role, institution, tactic, event, ideology, or mechanism before any symbolic transfer is made.

## What it does

Hamas combines political, social, administrative, and armed structures; won the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, took de facto control of Gaza in 2007 after conflict with Fatah, has fought Israel, and led the 7 October 2023 attacks with other groups. Legal designations, governance, popular support, and specific conduct are distinct questions.

## Who gains and who loses power

The mechanism can increase the capacity of actors able to use Hamas, while shifting cost, delay, risk, exclusion, or dependence toward actors with less authority, information, organization, money, or safe access. The distribution is conditional, not an essence of the node.

## Archetypal function

**The Unresolved Homeland.** a Palestinian Islamist political and armed organization that has exercised de facto governing authority in Gaza and is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, and other jurisdictions

## Gift

No gift is assigned to attacks on civilians; analytically, the node prevents Palestinian society, Islamism, governance, armed resistance, and one organization from being falsely collapsed.

## Wound / Shadow

Celebration or denial of atrocities, collective attribution to Palestinians, or treating a legal designation as a complete political history.

## Conditions

- scale and jurisdiction are explicit
- affected people and absent stakeholders are named
- time horizon and countermoves are considered

## Strategic meaning

Use Hamas to identify the operative target, resource, dependency, decision forum, and likely countermove. Ask what would make the mechanism stronger, weaker, more legitimate, or less necessary.

## Divinatory meaning

The Unresolved Homeland enters through Hamas. Read for the capacity seeking expression, the cost displaced from view, and the relationship that changes if the frame moves.

**Question:** Is the claim about ideology, governance, social provision, armed structure, legal designation, a specific attack, or Palestinian public opinion?

## Game function

**constraint.** Reveal one hidden dependency connected to Hamas; another player names a countermove. Initiative 2.

## Relationships

- **mobilizes — Palestinian Authority:** Palestinian Authority mobilizes Hamas by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(cultural_historical; supported)_
- **distributes costs to — October 7 Attacks:** Hamas distributes costs to October 7 Attacks by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(synthesis; supported)_
- **amplifies — Proxy War:** Proxy War amplifies Hamas by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(interpretive; tentative)_
- **depends on — Political Education:** Hamas depends on Political Education by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(interpretive; tentative)_

## Countermaps and polarity prompts

- Read Hamas from the viewpoint of the actor who bears its cost.
- Reverse cause and symptom: what if Hamas is an effect of the system it appears to drive?
- Change the clock: what looks different over a day, an election cycle, a generation, and a century?
- Ask when the Gift becomes the Wound through scale, secrecy, intensity, latency, or unequal reciprocity.

## Epistemic and Sentinel note

Claim layers: synthesis, interpretive, symbolic_divinatory. Scope, jurisdiction, period, and source perspective may change the claim.
Sentinel factors: armed organization; terrorist designation varies by jurisdiction; mass killing and hostage-taking; active conflict; do not conflate with Palestinians. These are descriptive handoff annotations, not a verdict and not a mutation of Engine Output.

## Visual direction

A text-free enamel expression of Hamas: one dominant mechanism, one counterforce, raised warm-metal linework, midnight field, restrained civic red, teal, ivory, and amber. No party logo, national flag, sacred symbol, or recognizable person.

## Research / provenance

- [History of the Question of Palestine](https://www.un.org/unispal/history/) — United Nations, 2026. UN-framed chronology and diplomatic record.
- [Hamas–Israel Conflict 2023: Key Legal Aspects](https://www.gov.il/en/pages/hamas-israel-conflict2023-key-legal-aspects) — Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2023. Israeli government factual and legal position; explicitly labeled as a party perspective.
- [Advisory Opinion: Occupied Palestinian Territory](https://www.icj-cij.org/case/186) — International Court of Justice, 2024. Court record and advisory opinion; advisory rather than contentious judgment.
- [Occupied Palestinian Territory](https://www.ochaopt.org/) — UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ongoing. UN humanitarian reporting and datasets; casualty sources and methods should remain visible.
- [Foreign Terrorist Organizations](https://2021-2025.state.gov/foreign-terrorist-organizations/) — U.S. Department of State, 2025. U.S. designation list; legal classification is jurisdiction-specific and does not describe every supporter or Palestinian political actor.

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Engine Output version 1.0.0; generated 2026-08-24T00:00:00Z. Sentinel annotations are stored separately in `sentinel/handoffs.json`.
