In practice , Hamas altered its approach restricting actions to ' legitimate military targets ' by extended them to Israeli civilians after 7 years . Though between 1996 and 2001 it generally refrained from targeting Israeli civilians , it adopted sporadic suicide bombings in the wake of the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre , when an Israeli settler in military fatigues , Baruch Goldstein , shot dead 29 Muslims at prayer in 1993 . After the Al Aqsa revolt , the Brigades were behind most of the suicide bombings in Israel , a measure it defended as a form of " reciprocity "
Cave of the Patriarchs massacre
Cave of the Patriarchs massacre
Hamas