Q&A: Your Gaza questions answered

Palestinians queue at the Erez Crossing between Gaza and Israel

Hamas has seized control of Gaza and is excluded from the new Palestinian government set up by the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas.

The BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen answers some of your questions about what has happened.

Q: We hear little about how the Palestinian people view this new Fatah government. Do they feel that their democratically elected Hamas government has been unfairly swept away by outside influence?
Elliott Leyton, Paradise, Newfoundland, Canada

This week Palestinian pollsters have been trying to find out what Palestinians think. One poll, from Near East Consulting, found that approval ratings for Fatah's President Abbas have risen, and those of Ismail Haniyeh, the sacked Hamas prime minister, have fallen.

When asked whether the strategy of Hamas or Fatah was more appropriate, 70% of Palestinians polled in the West Bank and Gaza preferred Fatah's strategy. Some 63% said they supported a peace agreement with Israel.

Of those who described themselves as Hamas supporters, 35% said that Hamas should drop the part of its charter that says that Israel should be eliminated.

Q: In your opinion do you think the approach the West has taken to the only elected government in the Arab world (Hamas - no matter how extremist) was the right approach?
RezaKF, London

First of all, Hamas did not form the only elected government in the Arab world. Iraq and Lebanon have elected governments.

And the administration put together by Hamas after its victory in elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2006 was not a government, because the Palestinians do not have a state. Hamas was elected to run the Palestinian Administration, which was created in the 1990s during the Oslo peace process as a way-station on the road to a state. In practice, it has relatively low level administrative responsibilities.

Foreign countries were not obliged to recognise the Hamas administration, just because it was elected. But not doing so made the United States, especially, look inconsistent. It had pushed hard for the Palestinians to have elections in January 2006, despite the doubts of both Israel and President Abbas.

The US has since quietly stopped pushing for free elections in the Middle East. The Bush administration's belief that just having elections can bring in democracy as a panacea to solve all kinds of problems now looks a little simplistic. Creating democracy is a process that needs primarily to come within a country. It is not easy to impose.

The policy of isolating Hamas was intended to either force it to recognise Israel, or force it out of power. It still has not recognised Israel, nor is it likely to, and it now controls the Gaza Strip, although the Hamas prime minister and his ministers have been dismissed by President Abbas. That suggests the policy of isolating Hamas to change its behaviour has not worked.

Q: The BBC is by far the most reliable news source... but at the same time it is biased. Why does the BBC avoid using the term "militants"?
Moshe Shen, Israel

The BBC is not biased. We take an impartial approach to news coverage, and try very hard to get to the truth. That sometimes means that people with a strong attachment to a particular point of view don't like our coverage.

I assume that you are referring to our policy of not using the word terrorists, unless we are quoting someone who is using the word. Our policy is to avoid words that are politically loaded, the use of which can be a barrier to understanding. Most Palestinians regard violence directed against Israel as legitimate resistance. Most Israelis regard it as terrorism.

If the BBC backed either definition we would no longer be impartial.

"Militants" is shorthand, and not always the best word either. I prefer to describe what people have done. For example, if someone has planted a bomb, call the person who did it a bomber and describe what the bomb did.

Q: Do you believe that Western correspondents can provide pro-Israel or neutral reports from Gaza and the West Bank and not be targeted by militias?
Sergey Karpov, Moscow/New York, USA

Unfortunately the BBC correspondent Alan Johnston was kidnapped in March and as I write this he has been a prisoner for 100 days. I suspect Alan was kidnapped because he was the most high profile foreign correspondent in Gaza, not because of anything he had written.

Q: Are the successes of Hamas in recent years an outcome of the perceived corruption of Fatah, or is this part of a wider trend away from secular nationalism and towards religious fundamentalism? Does this represent a wider trend within the Middle East?
Paul, London, UK

Hamas won elections in January 2006 because of a big protest vote against Fatah's corruption and mismanagement. Hamas is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, the biggest movement of political Islam in the Middle East, but it is also a nationalist organisation.

Secular nationalism in the Arab world has been in decline since the victory of Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. For increasing numbers of people, the answers to the questions they are asking come from the mosques.

Authoritarian governments - Egypt is a good example - have also stopped the creation of secular, democratic opposition movements, which has meant that the only way to protest has been via political Islam.

Q: What do you think is the greatest threat to peace in the Palestinian Authority. Is it Israel, the actions of other states, or the lack of national unity among Palestinians?
Mike Rynne, Limerick, Ireland

Since there is no peace, and no peace process, that question is hard to answer.

If the intention is still to try to create a peace based on a state of Palestine standing alongside Israel (Messrs Olmert and Bush said it was when they met in Washington this week) then the first thing to do, if they are serious, is to try to agree what kind of state they are talking about.

Do they mean a state with the 1967 boundaries, or something less? Would it be able to have a capital in east Jerusalem, and would it be properly independent and sovereign?

Arab countries have already called for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, with a capital in East Jerusalem, with the 1967 boundaries.