Indoctrinated 'from the age of five'
Indoctrinated 'from the age of five'Flash 90

Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of Hamas's founders Sheikh Hassan Yousef, has said that the current conflict illustrates how the Islamist group's disregard for human life is central to its ideology.

"Hamas does not care about the lives of Palestinians, does not care about the lives of Israelis or Americans - they don't care about their own lives," he said in an interview with CNN. "They consider dying for the sake of their ideology as a way of worship."

Youssef - who left Hamas and converted to Christianity after becoming disillusioned and serving for a period as an Israeli spy - added that there was no way for Israel to reach any kind of compromise with Hamas, whose very charter calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and whose leaders have repeatedly called for the extermination of the Jewish people.

"Hamas is not seeking coexistence and compromise - Hamas is seeking conquest and taking over," Yousef insisted.

But he went further to describe Hamas as part of an imperialist force seeking to establish an Islamic super-state - much like the so-called "Islamic State", formerly known as ISIS, which seized control of much of Iraq and Syria.

"The destruction of the State of Israel is not Hamas's final destination. Hamas's final destination is building the Islamic khlifa (Caliphate) - which means an Islamic state on the rubble of every other civilization. These are the ultimate goals of the movement."

Yousef recalled how he was taught "since the age of five" that establishing an Islamic state couldn't be achieved "without shedding innocent blood", and expressed pity for the children of Gaza who, he said, have little choice but to follow Hamas.