Hanging from the tarpaulin walls of Amal Ashraf Al Shafa'a’s tent are three posters showing the faces of three young men.
She does not need those photos to remind her of the immense loss her family has experienced during the war in Gaza.
But in the midst of the chaos and destruction they take pride of place in her makeshift home in the territory’s north.
“I lost three of my sons and now they have left behind orphans,” she told the 7.30 programme.
“When I look at my grandchildren I am heartbroken – my children are gone.”
With her grief looming over her Amal took to the streets alongside hundreds of other Palestinians to rail against Hamas in the days after Israel resumed its bombardment of Gaza.
Yeah, yeah. I know what you’re thinking. Poor Palestinians, Israel bad…I’ve heard it all before, but please bear with me.
The March demonstrations have been described as the largest anti-Hamas rallies since the war in Gaza began, following Hamas' deadly attacks on 7 October, 2023.
Palestinians expressed their anguish over the immeasurable devastation wrought by Israeli forces during the war, but laid blame at the feet of Hamas for allowing it to continue.
“Out Hamas, out!” the protesters chanted.
“The people want the fall of Hamas!”
[…] Since the protests broke out there have been reports of deadly reprisals against those who took to the streets.
Amnesty International said it had documented “a disturbing pattern of threats, intimidation and harassment, including interrogations and beatings by Hamas-run security forces against individuals exercising their right to peaceful protest”.
“It is abhorrent and shameful that while Palestinians in Gaza are enduring atrocities at the hands of Israel, Hamas authorities are further exacerbating their suffering by ramping up threats and intimidation against people simply for saying ‘we want to live’,” Erika Guevara-Rosas, senior director for research, advocacy, policy and campaigns at Amnesty International, said.”
Let’s see. Pallies elect a bunch of terrorists to rule over them and you’re surprised when those same terrorists engage in terrorism against those same people? Let’s not forget that Palestinans in Gaza elected Hamas most likely because they thought Hamas was most likely to be able to defeat Israel.
The family of one man, 22-year-old Odai Al-Rubai, said he was abducted and tortured for hours by Hamas before his body was dumped outside the family home.
[…] Hamas has a reputation for ruling Gaza with an iron fist. In early May it announced it had executed six people and shot another 13 in the legs for alleged looting, and last week killed another four.
“A warning has been issued – those who ignore it bear full responsibility,” the group said.
“Let’s not forget that Hamas as a movement, as a religious movement – and it’s a political religious movement actually – has its own ideology, its own world view and its own way to do things in terms of culture, in terms of social life, and sometimes in terms of political dissent,” Dr Hasan Ayoub, assistant professor of politics at An-Najah University in the West Bank, told 7.30.
“Yes, Hamas at some points in Gaza, they practiced their own, let me call it, non-democratic, coercive tactics against political dissent.”
[…] Dr Ayoub suggested the protests were misdirected fury at Israel for its ongoing bombardment of Gaza.
“Let’s assume that nothing of this, what I said, is true – that people really are spontaneously [protesting] because they are fed up to the back of their teeth of the situation. No one can blame them, it’s very much understood,” he said.
“But I have never heard of a people when, being exposed to genocide and to this terrifying amount of killing, will come out and protest against a liberation movement that is fighting in their favour.
“It never happened, not in the Palestinian history, not in any history in the world – so there is something that is not adding up here.”
LOL.
Israel has repeatedly said its war in Gaza is against Hamas, and not the Palestinian people.
[…] For Hamada Alza'anoun, the desperate situation facing his family and his people prompted him to join the protests.
Picking through the rubble of his former home, destroyed by Israeli bombs, he said Hamas’ elite benefited from the war.
“We oppose their rule because it serves only the interests of their loyalists,” he said.
[…] “Regardless of conditions, we want the war to end. Gaza people love life.
“We want life, we don’t want death – as children, young men, we want to stay alive, we don’t want to die.”
Hamas ‘will grow back.’
In January, days before leaving office, then US Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed an interesting aspect about the impact of the war on the Gazan population.
“We assess that Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost,” Blinken said.
“That is a recipe for an enduring insurgency and perpetual war.
“We’ve long made the point to the Israeli government that Hamas cannot be defeated by a military campaign alone, that without a clear alternative, a post-conflict plan and a credible political horizon for the Palestinians, Hamas, or something just as abhorrent and dangerous, will grow back.”
Which is why long-term occupation together with rebuild are vital.
