On the night of January 25, 2006, after Hamas won a majority of the seats in elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council, its political leader Ismail Haniya told the press he had requested a meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the future of the Palestinian government. “Hamas will cooperate with everybody for the benefit of all the people,” he was quoted in The Guardian the next day.
17 years later, when Hamas launched a horrific attack, it’s clear that the only beneficiary of this victory was Hamas itself. The rest of the Palestinian people have lost.
