Hamas was supported by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. When President Morsi was deposed in a military coup, the new Egyptian government closed the smuggling tunnels which brought supplies from Egypt into the Gaza Strip. This, combined with the Israeli blockade, brought hardship to the people of Gaza, and probably weakened their support for Hamas. In addition, the levies that Hamas once derived from their control of the tunnel trade have dried up.
Hamas has been further isolated since their former backers in Syria and Iran now have difficulties of their own and can spare little aid for Gaza.
These considerations may have helped to convince Hamas that its immediate interest lay in an alliance with Fatah and an internal proposal to modify its violent and antisemitic Charter to include -
- a Palestinian State based on pre-1967 borders
- willingness to accept a peace agreement between Palestine and Israel, provided that it is approved by a popular referendum
- a focus on nonviolent forms of protest rather than armed struggle; but Hamas would not relinquish its arms
- increased toleration of non-Muslim faiths, especially Christianity and Judaism, naming "occupiers", not "Jews", as the enemy
- an end to formal links with the Muslim Brotherhood