article_snippet: The UK, Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan and the United States consider Hamas to be a terrorist organisation .
article_snippet: The UK, Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan and the United States Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan and the United States Canada, Israel, Japan and the United States Israel, Japan and the United States Japan and the United States the United States consider Hamas to be a terrorist organisation, while Iran, Russia, Turkey, China and Qatar consider it to be a legitimate political organisation.
article_snippet: Israel said on Monday Israel has busted an Israeli-Palestinian smuggling ring that funneled iron, electronic equipment and other prohibited materials to Gaza, bypassing Israel's stringent border security to help Hamas rebuild Hamas militant infrastructure following last year's war.
article_snippet: Nine people in the ring, among them three Jewish Israelis who own companies that sell the materials, were charged with assisting an enemy in wartime, terror financing and fraud.
article_snippet: The remaining ring members were said to be Palestinians from Gaza.
article_snippet: Hamas, a bitter enemy of Israel's, suffered heavy losses in the 50-day war, in which Israel carried out some 5,000 airstrikes throughout Gaza.
article_snippet: Hamas fired thousands of rockets into Israel.
article_snippet: The fighting killed more than 2,200 Palestinians and 72 people on the Israeli side.
article_snippet: Hamas is suffering from international isolation and a cash crunch and has been trying to rebuild the coastal territory since The fighting ended.