MADRID, Jan 20, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - The EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell late 
Friday accused Israel of having "created" and "financed" the Palestinian 
militant group Hamas, which launched unprecedented attacks on Israel on 
October 7.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has in recent days reaffirmed his 
opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state, drawing criticism from his 
US ally, which is still advocating a "two-state solution".

"We believe that a two-state solution must be imposed from outside to bring 
peace. Although, I insist, Israel is reaffirming its refusal (of this 
solution), and to prevent it they have gone so far as to create Hamas 
themselves," Borrell said.

"Hamas has been financed by the Israeli government to try to weaken the 
Palestinian Authority of Fatah.

"But if we do not intervene strongly, the spiral of hate and violence will 
continue from generation to generation, from funeral to funeral, as the seeds 
of hatred that are being sown in Gaza today flourish," he added during a 
speech in Spanish at the University of Valladolid in central Spain, which 
awarded him an honorary doctorate.

Hamas was created in December 1987 shortly after the start of the first 
Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian 
territories by a group of Islamist militants claiming to be from the Muslim 
Brotherhood, including the influential Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Hamas, the Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, was notably 
founded to counter the Islamic Jihad militant group and compete with the 
mainly secular Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) then led by Yasser 
Arafat.

Twenty years later, in June 2007, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip 
following a quasi-civil war against the Fatah movement of Arafat's successor 
Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, which partially 
administers the occupied West Bank.

In recent years, the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas and under Israeli 
blockade, has received millions of dollars in aid from Qatar, provoking 
criticism of Netanyahu, who is accused of having favoured financing of the 
movement. The prime minister denies the accusation.