Cairo: Palestinians chanted against Hamas during an anti-war protest in the Gaza Strip, according to videos circulating online in 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 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.
“We are sick of the bombing, killing and displacement,” Ammar Hassan, a young man from Beit Lahiya who took part in the protest.
He said it started as an anti-war protest with just a few dozen people but then swelled to more than 2,000, with people chanting against Hamas.
“It’s the only party we can affect,” he said over the phone. “Protests won’t stop the (Israeli) occupation, but it can affect Hamas,” he said.
“The protest was not about politics. It was about people’s lives,” said Mohammed Abu Saker, a father of three from the nearby town of Beit Hanoun, who joined the demonstration.
“We want to stop the killing and displacement, no matter the price. We can’t stop Israel from killing us, but we can press Hamas to give concessions,” he said.
A statement released by family elders from Beit Lahiya expressed support for the protests against Israel’s offensive and its tightened blockade. They also said 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 protests erupted a week after Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas by launching a surprise wave of strikes that killed hundreds of people. Earlier this month, Israel 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 it will only release the remaining captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251. Hamas has said only a handful of its top commanders knew about the attack ahead of time.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 50,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or 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 months of factional unrest and a week of heavy street battles.
Rights groups say both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas violently suppress dissent, quashing protests in the areas they control and jailing and torturing critics.
AP
