As the Israel-Hamas conflict enters its 14th day, Karan Thapar interviews Paola Caridi – one of the world’s best informed and most highly regarded authorities on Hamas and the author of Hamas: Resistance to Regime and Jerusalem Without God: Portrait of a Cruel City.The critical question is: ‘Do we know the truth about Hamas? And when we find out, will it surprise us or confirm the worst?’What emerges is a complex and indeed complicated picture that is not easy to grasp in terms of simple single sentences. Paola Caridi paints a multifaceted picture of Hamas. She says there are different divisions within Hamas (military and political) which are often at odds with each other. She believes that the October 7 attack probably happened without the political division being aware or consulted. She also says that the top leadership of Hamas is outside Gaza i.e. abroad and increasingly cut off from what is happening in Gaza. She says there are also divisions between Hamas in Gaza and Hamas organisations in other parts, not just the West Bank but elsewhere too. She says Hamas has evolved in what it stands for and, more importantly, how it views Israel but also gone back and reversed itself. In 1987, when it was founded, it was committed to the elimination of Israel, including physically. The first signs of compromise happened in 2006-07, when Hamas won power in Gaza and became part of the institutional structure of politics. Reversal began to happen in 2011, when 1,027 Hamas prisoners were released from Israeli jails and their influence radicalised the organization. A second compromise was apparent when Hamas changed its charter in 2017 and accepted a sort of compromise whereby it was willing to live side by side with Israel but not recognise the existence of Israel. Since then, a reverse radicalisation has been happening.This is a complicated and difficult story, particularly for those who do not know Hamas and its history, Israel’s different responses to Hamas and how the world, with its treatment of Hamas, has added to the complications. Paola Caridi attempts to explain all of this.Paola Caridi also discusses how popular Hamas is in Gaza, in the West Bank, and whether it’s an idea or an organisation.She is asked the following questions:1) Forgive me if my questions seem basic and even rudimentary, but in India we know very little about Hamas. So can I start by asking how would you characterise or describe this organisation? At the moment most governments and media organisations call it a terrorist organisation. From your perception would that be correct or mistaken?2) What is Hamas’s ideology? What are the principles and goals it stands for?3) Now there are some reports that Israel has played a role in funding and supporting the founding of Hamas. I know that when he was military governor of Gaza, Gen Gonen Segev assisted and helped several religious based groups as a way of checking the secular PLO. Is that true of Hamas as well?4) Hamas’s original charter commits the organisation to work for the destruction or elimination of Israel but was there a significant change in 2017 whereby without recognising Israel Hamas was prepared to accept its existence as a state?5) Since 2017, how would you describe Hamas’s attitude to Israel and how has it evolved between 2017 and 2023?6) Hamas has fought several ‘wars’ with Israel but the Israelis were convinced that for the last two years at least that Hamas was focused on the development of Gaza and was no longer committed to overthrowing Israel. How serious a misreading of reality was that?7) Do we know the specific reasons why Hamas launched this massive attack on October 7? And secondly what message was it sending by choosing the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war?8) How popular is Hamas in Gaza? We’re often told it doesn’t represent the Palestinian people but does it or does it not represent the people of Gaza?9) And what about the Palestinians of the West Bank? How do they view Hamas?10) Is Hamas misunderstood by the West? Even if understandable, is it seen through Israeli eyes, which are inevitably distorting?11) Is Hamas locked in a war with Israel that cannot be mediated and resolved? Or could Hamas agree to a two state solution?12) Finally and I’ve deliberately left this to the end. Can Hamas be obliterated as Israel insists? In other words is it an idea or an organisation?13) If it’s true that the Hamas security head has been killed, as the Palestine Authority has said, how serious a blow would this be?14) To what extent has Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the Palestine situation over the last 15 years he’s been prime minister made matters worse by adding to the problems with Hamas?15) Are there realists in Hamas who can identify what they can live with as a practical solution? It won’t be everything they want but are there Hamas realists who agree on an outcome Israel can accept?