Israel and the Palestinians: 3. Hamas

Understand - A podcast by BBC Radio 4

What is Hamas, what do they stand for and what do they want now? As part of our series explaining the context of today’s conflict, Katya Adler and guests take a closer look at the group responsible for orchestrating the recent attacks on Israel. They are regarded as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the UK, but how are they seen by Palestinians? As well as being a militant group and an Islamist movement, they are in charge of governing more than two million people in the Gaza Strip. How did they come into being and what are they hoping to achieve?