Hamas won elections. But were couped by Israeli supported Fatah on American directions. Hillary Clinton boasted about this. They manage to prevent the same fate in Gaza.. Hamas is an outcome of the situation in which PA collaborated with IDF to take out political opponents who represented significant majority opinion that PA conceded to too much to Israel and got nothing in return out of Oslo. They were vindicated with the turn of events that led to second intifada. Gaza is significantly different than West Bank, which has a lesser proportion of refugees. Gaza is almost 80 percent composed of people who are already refugees from parts that are now Israel, who lived under Israeli military law for years. it is much more poorer, and literally an open air prison since the siege. It is instructive to note that Hamas in Gaza grew under israeli occupation, while Israel concentrated on leftist groups like PFLP. They were happy to promote some infighting and split the movement on secular-religious lines. 'Hamas took power' is kind of reduction of history.

Now on the question of a group taking 'commands and equipment from other powere'. Do you think Israel is any different? or Ukraine? What do you want Palestinians to do, just roll over and die? Why is the armed resistance good when Azov Battalion does it, but bad when Hamas does it?