Palestinians gathered in large numbers chanted against Hamas during an anti-war protest in the Gaza Strip, according to videos circulating online. It was a rare show of public anger against the militant group, which has long repressed dissent and still rules the territory 17 months into the war with Israel.
The videos, which appeared to be authentic, showed hundreds of people taking part in an anti-war protest in the heavily destroyed northern town of Beit Lahiya on Tuesday.
People held signs saying “Stop the war”, “We refuse to die”, and “The blood of our children is not cheap”. Some could be heard chanting: “Hamas out!” Other videos appeared to show Hamas supporters dispersing the crowds.
A statement released by family elders from Beit Lahiya expressed support for the protests against Israel’s offensive and its tightened blockade, said an Associated Press report via Press Trust of India.
They also said that the community fully supports armed resistance against Israel and rejects “any attempt to exploit legitimate popular demands by a fifth column”, apparently referring to opponents of Hamas.
The anti-Hamas protests erupted a week after Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas by launching a surprise wave of strikes that killed hundreds of Gaza people.
Earlier this month, Israel had halted deliveries of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians.
Israel has vowed to escalate the war until Hamas returns the 59 hostages it still holds, 24 of whom are believed to be alive. Israel is also demanding that the group give up power, disarm, and send its leaders into exile.
Hamas has said that it will only release the remaining captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire, and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
War triggered by October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel
The on-going Israel-Hamas war was triggered by the militant group’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which the Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 Israeli people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251. Thousands of rockets were fired by Hamas into Israeli settlements early in the day.
Hamas has said that only a handful of its top commanders knew about the October 7 attack ahead of time. That very day, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country was “at war”.
The retaliatory offensive by Israel has killed over 50,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians and how many were combatants.
Israel’s bombardment and ground operations have caused vast destruction and, at their height, displaced some 90 per cent of Gaza’s population.
Hamas won a landslide victory in the last Palestinian elections, held in 2006. It seized power in Gaza from the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, dominated by the secular Fatah movement, the following year after a week of street battles.
Rights groups say that both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas violently suppress dissent, quashing protests in the areas they control, and jailing and torturing critics.
