Israel's Role in Hamas's Rise
During the 1970s and 1980s, Israeli authorities tolerated and even supported the growth of Islamist groups in Gaza, including Yassin’s network, as a counterweight to the secular, nationalist Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). At the time, the PLO was seen as the primary threat due to its armed resistance and international campaigns against Israel.
Israeli officials permitted or encouraged the construction of mosques and Islamic charities, believing that religious movements would focus on social services rather than armed struggle. Brigadier General Yitzhak Segev, who served as Israel’s military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s, admitted to providing financial assistance to Mujama al-Islamiya on government orders.
As noted in The New York Times (1988), Israeli authorities conducted repeated crackdowns on PLO-linked groups but left figures like Yassin untouched, despite his inflammatory rhetoric. wiki