Why Israel Created Hamas
"Israel started Hamas. It was a project of Shin Bet." -- Charles Freeman, US diplomat, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Devil's Game, p.191 (source)
"Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas." -- Benjamin Netanyahu, Another Concept Implodes: Israel Can't Be Managed by a Criminal Defendant, Haaretz, 9-Oct-2023 (source)
"Openly Hamas is an enemy. Covertly, it's an ally." -- IDF Reserve Major General Gershon Hacohen and Benjamin Netanyahu associate, Why Did Netanyahu Want to Strengthen Hamas?, Haaretz, 11-Oct-2023 (source)
Since the founding of Hamas in 1987, Israeli, American and Palestinian officials have repeatedly acknowledged that Israel did indeed help create and fund the Islamist group.
The point made by many of these officials is not that Israel "allowed" the rise of Hamas or that Hamas emerged in response to Israeli "occupation" of Palestine. Rather, their point was and is that Israel's intelligence agencies actively helped create and finance the Hamas group.