Since its founding, Hamas has combined political leadership with armed resistance. Within Palestinian society, support for armed resistance has been declining in the face of the enormous human losses and the widespread destruction of the Gaza Strip. Significant obstacles stand between a political agreement in principle and its implementation. The Gaza Strip currently has little functioning economy, and reconstruction is only due to begin once progress has been made on disarmament. It is far more difficult to create the political conditions under which armed resistance permanently loses its legitimacy.