Just over a year since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks, the war launched on Gaza by Israel in response is unrelenting: more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed, over 100,000 injured, nearly all of Gaza’s entire prewar population of 2.3 million has been displaced, and much of the territory reduced to rubble.
Most Gazans blame Israel for this devastation. But a growing number also blame the leadership of Hamas for giving Israeli authorities the opening to unleash this onslaught. In addition, some Gazans point to the often-brutal punishment Hamas metes out to Palestinians who voice any criticism of the organization.
Such opinions are expressed in the article that follows, authored anonymously by a Palestinian living in northern Gaza in order to minimize the danger of retribution by Hamas.
It is impossible to independently verify all the assertions made in the article.
However, the author’s opinions, and the information he outlines to back them up, are corroborated by other reports by Palestinians in Gaza. Links to several of these reports are provided as an “Afterword.”
World-Outlook is republishing the column below, which first appeared on October 14, 2024, in the Israeli daily Haaretz, as information for our readers. The headline, subhead, and photos that follow are from the original.
— World-Outlook editors
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Israel Is Killing Us. But Hamas Is Exploiting Our Deaths
I wish for the release of the Israeli hostages to the same extent that I wish for my own liberation. I call on the world to relate to us just as it relates to them, as hostages, and save us from both the brutality of the Israeli occupation and from our Hamas kidnappers.
Anonymous
Gaza
Oct 14, 2024, 1:22 pm IDT
GAZA – There is a great similarity between the residents of Gaza and the Israelis being held hostage by Hamas. Both are victims of failed leadership, having to contend with a fate they have not chosen.
The Israeli hostages found themselves in an instant underground, in a way reminiscent to the captivity residents of Gaza have experienced at the hands of Hamas for 18 years, during which they have been brainwashed with an ideology of ruin, leading us to destruction.
The similarity between the hostages on both sides is striking: the two leaders have no intention of rescuing the victims; using the hostages as an excuse for continuing warfare, sacrificing them for their own political considerations.
Hamas claims to be the representative of the Palestinian people, presenting the October 7 terror attack and the ensuing war as benefiting the nation. But Hamas does not represent us, and since 2010 its rule is illegitimate. It sees our blood as fuel for its political ambitions and as a means of imposing its rule over all Palestinian territories. Its insistence on clinging to power in Gaza is causing the deaths of an enormous number of Palestinians.
We, the residents of Gaza, understand the suffering of the Israeli hostages better than anyone else in the world. They, like us, have been deprived of the most basic of rights: to decide our fates. They are being held captive underground while we are hostages above ground, in the big prison of Gaza.
We suffer from the war like they do, paying the price for an insane and lethal adventure. The only difference between us is the size of the area we are held in and its location.
I wish for the release of the Israeli hostages to the same extent that I wish for my own liberation. I call on the world to relate to us just as it relates to them, as hostages, and save us from both the brutality of the Israeli occupation and from our Hamas kidnappers. This will only happen by exerting great pressure on our kidnappers and on Israel’s government so that they stop colluding against Gaza, and finally let us decide our own fate.
There is no atonement for the evil of a reality in which our kidnappers live comfortably in their palaces in Doha while we live in tents. If our kidnappers lived in tents, the war would have long been over. They don’t value our lives, as stated by senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad: “Even if Israel kills 100,000 of us, we won’t stop; that’s our winning card.” For them, we are bargaining chips. Israel kills us and they exploit our deaths in order to gain points and influence international opinion.
It’s a dirty game. On the one hand, we are victims of a bloody occupation by Israel, and on the other, of an autocratic organization, claiming to be a liberation movement. What’s more, Hamas is backed by some of the most tyrannical regimes in the world.
After a year of combat, Hamas does not pose a real threat to Israel, however, the Israeli army has not managed to end the organization’s rule over Gaza. Hamas still has a considerable number of weapons in its possession, and uses them to intimidate the civilian population. Lately, Hamas has hardened even more its methods of oppression.
Hamas militants kidnap regime opponents and torture them. My friend Amin Abed’s limbs were broken with steel bars, after he criticized Hamas on the media. My friends in the southern Gaza Strip tell me that Hamas no longer operates freely in the area, but it’s rebuilding itself under the moniker “popular committees,” so it can protect its assets and monitor marketplaces.
The truth is, their objective is to deter residents from conveying critical opinions and to suppress their opponents. A friend of mine who lives in a tent in Deir al-Balah told me how masked men from the “popular committees” broke into a neighboring tent, shot one of its occupants, and fled. He also saw them abduct a passerby and push him into a vehicle. It was later discovered that they murdered him and threw his body out of the car.
Here, in the northern Gaza Strip, Hamas security services recently summoned people I know and interrogated them about their social media posts on Facebook. They confiscated their cellphones and threatened them with brutal punishment if they posted again. There are known cases of executions over dubious suspicions. A week ago, they shot a man on a street in the Jabalya refugee camp for alleged “collaboration” with Israel.
There are several reasons why it is difficult to eliminate Hamas’ rule. The organization still controls civic life in Gaza, paying salaries to tens of thousands of employees. Those employees live in dread, fearing the end of Hamas rule. As a result, they are forced to protect Hamas, which is the source of their livelihood, even though some of them don’t belong to the organization.
It is impossible to terminate Hamas’ rule without taking care of the thousands of employees that depend on the group. In addition, a different organization must be appointed to handle the distribution of humanitarian aid, since Hamas still controls this network, and sells some of the aid that reaches Gaza.
In markets, one can see numerous items included in humanitarian convoys offered for sale, though it is difficult to document this fact due to the tight control wielded by Hamas militants.
Hamas is exploiting the utter chaos prevailing in Gaza right now. Residents are offered neither solutions nor hope, and, consequently, are forced to yield to Hamas in order to survive. In the present situation, it’s evident that people will choose Hamas over chaos.
Hamas will not surrender and will continue to sacrifice Gazans to their last drop of blood. Israel too will not stop its war as long as Hamas is in power. This means endless war. A political solution is required, with the establishment of a body that manages affairs in the Gaza Strip on the day after.
The war will not end with a military victory. Israel’s government is wrong in believing that collective punishment will cause Gazans to revolt against Hamas. Gaza is not Tel Aviv (where a revolt against Netanyahu also isn’t bearing fruit). Hamas is an extremist organization of zealots. If we revolt, they simply will kill us. They brutally suppressed a non-violent protest in March 2019. What would they do now, during a war in which they’ve already crossed every boundary, feeling that their very existence is under threat?
The best solution for the day after is to return the decision to the people. A referendum should be held under international monitoring, with the establishment of an international administration supported by Arab countries, led by Egypt. Such an administration will bring about an end to the war, disarming militant organizations and releasing the hostages. It will set up a system for security and aid, removing unexploded ordnance remaining in the area and rehabilitating infrastructure. Many challenges await Gazans, but the main thing for us is ending the war as well as the return of displaced people to their homes.
This administration will operate for a two-year transition period, at the end of which control will be handed over to the Palestinian Authority or to another elected body that will manage Gaza. Most importantly, Gaza residents are the ones who must chose their representatives. Gaza has paid the price, which is why it must decide its fate on its own. Residents must be afforded a sense of security and freedom with regard to their political representation. I am certain that the choice made by Gazans will surprise the world.
Hamas’ popularity is at an unprecedented nadir. People are fatigued. They have lost a great deal and are fed up with killing and war. Don’t believe the media in the Arab world: most outlets serve Hamas’ interests rather than reflect the wishes of Gaza’s population.
Journalists in Gaza also bolster the Hamas narrative. But the war and the 18 years of oppression which preceded it were enough to change the mood in Gaza, especially with regard to armed resistance.
Hamas is aware of this and has sacrificed Gaza in order to raise its popularity in the West Bank and overseas. Indeed, if elections were held now in all Palestinian territories, it would assume power again via a different entrance. I think that one of the undeclared reasons that motivated Hamas to carry out the October 7 attack was its wish to eliminate the Palestinian Authority and take over the Palestinian political apparatus.
Palestinian public opinion changed for the worse in regard to Hamas years ago. Gazans have been the group’s hostages since 2006. They cannot express their opinions safely and freely, and they don’t vote in elections. I am in my 30s and I’ve never voted. Despite this, some people insolently claim that Hamas is the people’s choice. Is it really?
Due to eased Israeli restrictions before October 7, the number of people seeking work in Israel exceeded 100,000. This fact embarrassed Hamas, which had always opposed normalization with Israel. This may have accelerated the decision to attack on October 7 in order to disrupt the eased restrictions, which undermined Hamas’ legitimacy.
Hamas earned its political capital through crises and isolation, which engender hatred and violence. Hamas was the first organization to send suicide bombers to blow themselves up at civilian border crossings at the beginning of the intifada. As a result, border crossings were closed to laborers and to Palestinians seeking medical treatment in Israel.
One year after the calamity of October 7, we are approaching a gigantic war led by fanatics on the extreme right. I am convinced that Hamas, the Iranian axis and the right-wing religious Zionists are two sides of the same coin. They feed on destruction and serve each other’s interests. They do not hesitate to trample their people in order to justify their slogans.
Most wars that aim to eliminate the opposing side fail, leading only to destruction and ruin. The strategy of most successful wars is to gain an advantage during final negotiations. Israel’s continuing clinging to a sterile strategy of occupation, a particularly bad one for a country situated in the midst of a hostile environment, attests to the fact that its destroyers will come from within.
Israel must finally realize that the Palestinian nation deserve a better life, and that it must be granted its full rights through an agreement that ensures the rights of both peoples to live in peace and security. The Jewish people have paid the highest price throughout their history due to oppression and evil, and they must understand that following in the steps of oppressive regimes that committed mass murder in the last century will not achieve security and stability for Israel.
The writer lives in the northern Gaza Strip. His name has been withheld.
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Afterword by World-Outlook
Of interest to our readers may be several articles reflecting the range of opinions in Gaza about Hamas and the Israeli assault, and echoing the opinions expressed above:
- Gazan Anger at Hamas Grows as War Drags On, an article by Mahmoud Mushtaha, a Palestinian journalist from Gaza who was forced to flee his home and now resides in Cairo, Egypt. World-Outlook republished this essay in August.
- Amira Hass, the Haaretz correspondent for the occupied territories, wrote Gazans Opposing Hamas Say They’re the Majority, published by the Israeli daily on April 1 and reposted by World-Outlook. The article is based on interviews with Palestinians in Gaza, who describe attitudes of Gazans toward Hamas and the Israeli onslaught.
- In a recent interview, Palestinian American historian Rashid Khalidi made similar points about Hamas, while discussing the state of the Palestinian national movement. “There is a powerful trend or faction that advocates an unrestricted form of violence,” Khalidi said. “In my view, this trend does not have a strategic vision. It has achieved tactical victories and some catastrophic strategic defeats, and it has caused enormous suffering to Palestinians and also to Israelis.”
Death of Yahya Sinwar
In addition, on October 17, the Israeli military announced it killed Yahya Sinwar, an architect of the October 7 attack and the central leader of Hamas in Gaza. In August, Sinwar became the chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, following the assassination of Ismael Haniyeh. Hamas acknowledged its leader’s death on October 18. The reactions of Palestinians, as reported by the media, were mixed.
“The first moment I heard his death, I felt relieved,” said Shorouq Abu Hammad, 22, as she was out shopping in Khan Younis, Sinwar’s hometown, according to the New York Times. Many of her neighbors felt the same way, she said, about the death of a man who “caused all this tragedy for the Gazan people.”
Other Palestinians, especially in the West Bank, eulogized Sinwar, held vigils to honor his memory and protest his killing, called him a hero, or expressed pride in what the Hamas leader stood for or how he died, fighting until his last breath.
“Sinwar’s death may make some supporters of his sad and angry, but the majority of other people won’t feel that way because they lost everything,” Ahmed Awad, 21, told the Times at a makeshift roadside coffee shop in Khan Yunis. “He is gone now, and we will see what he has left behind,” added Awad, whose university studies in design were interrupted by the war.
— World-Outlook editors
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Categories: Palestine/Israel
Thank you. I am transmitting to the international commission of my group, Ensemble !. Best John Barzman 06 19 12 17 81
Israel can kill Palestinian resistance leaders but it can’t kill the resistance. The Wall Street Journal understands this well:
WALL STREET JOURNAL
In Death, Hamas Leader May Have Won Wider Support Than When He Was Alive
Across the Arab world, U.S.-aligned governments find themselves in difficult positions as clerics and citizens praise Yahya Sinwar
Yahya Sinwar’s actions as one of Hamas’s top operatives divided opinion across the Palestinian territories and wider region. Hasan Mrad/Zuma PressIn Death, Hamas Leader May Have Won Wider Support Than When He Was Alive
Across the Arab world, U.S.-aligned governments find themselves in difficult positions as clerics and citizens praise Yahya Sinwar
Yahya Sinwar’s actions as one of Hamas’s top operatives divided opinion across the Palestinian territories and wider region.
By
Omar Abdel-Baqui
and
Summer Said
Oct. 20, 2024 1:29 pm ET
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(9 min)
For more than a year, Mustafa Muhammed, a displaced Palestinian, had sensed other Gazans living in tents there turning against Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who orchestrated the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Some people sleeping on the street or among the debris of their homes after waves of Israeli bombardments were growing openly scornful, he said.
That is, until Sinwar was killed—not deep in a tunnel, or fleeing Gaza, as many people suspected would be the case, but dying in an encounter with Israeli soldiers in the south of the strip.
Sinwar’s final moments were on display in a video released by Israel that apparently showed the Hamas chief critically injured, throwing an object at a surveillance drone shortly before his death. When Gazans saw the footage, many changed their minds, Muhammed said.
“It showed he was fighting until the very end,” he said.
Sinwar’s actions as one of Hamas’s top operatives, and especially last year’s attack on Israel, divided opinion across the Palestinian territories and wider region. Designated as a terrorist by the U.S., he had been convicted of multiple murders in Israel, including the killing of Palestinians he considered to be collaborators, and was serving a prison sentence there before he was released in a prisoner exchange.
Only 29% of Palestinians in Gaza were satisfied with Sinwar, according to September polling from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. But the way he died has prompted a reappraisal among many Palestinians and Arabs, and it is putting some governments in a bind as they measure their own responses to his death.
📷 Almost 30% of Palestinians in Gaza were satisfied with Sinwar, according to September polling, but his death a month later has prompted a reappraisal among many Palestinians and Arabs. Photo: Khaled Abdullah/Reuters
Key U.S. allies Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt are in a particularly delicate position, analysts say. Swaths of their populations are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause if not Hamas itself, while their governments have either at points designated Hamas a terrorist group or are wary of its influence and connections to Iran.
“The manner of Sinwar’s death puts those countries in a tight spot at a sensitive time,” said Mouin Rabbani, a nonresident fellow at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, an independent research center based in Qatar. “The people’s attitudes toward their governments have been, ‘You haven’t been able to achieve anything through diplomacy, while movements much weaker than you like Hamas and Hezbollah are causing Israel grief.’”
“They are critical that their leaders don’t have an effective strategy and are relying on the U.S. and Europe to put an end to this, which they feel is an admission of impotence,” Rabbani added.
This quandary explains why the regional players have responded to Sinwar’s death in very different ways.
Some, like Iran, Hamas’s biggest state supporter, have lionized him. Saudi Arabia, in contrast, has used its influence over the country’s media arm to call Sinwar a terrorist and welcome his death, drawing a wave of protests, including the vandalism of a Saudi channel’s offices in Iraq, according to Saudi officials.
Officials from Egypt and Jordan—both having diplomatic relations with Israel and the latter having a significant Palestinian population—have mostly stayed quiet publicly. “They are going out of their way to not issue a direct response to this topic,” Rabbani said.
The U.S. was less equivocal, with President Biden saying Sinwar’s death was “a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world,” while French President Emmanuel Macron said it represented an opportunity to de-escalate the conflict in Gaza and called for the release of the remaining hostages taken from Israel a year ago on Oct. 7.
This upswell of support for Sinwar in the Middle East, apparent across social media and in some street demonstrations, has little to do with last year’s attack on Israel, which left dead around 1,200 people and triggered a devastating Israeli response. Rather it reflects the symbolism of his decision to stay in Gaza for the war instead of orchestrating it from Qatar, where Hamas’s political leadership resides, or fleeing to neighboring Egypt, said Nasser Alkidwa, a former Palestinian foreign minister.
“It makes a difference to people in the Arab world that he was above ground, that he didn’t escape, and that he was fighting,” Alkidwa said. “How and where he died also refutes the Israeli narrative of Sinwar abandoning the people of Gaza. And many people feel Israel can’t pretend this is a big achievement because his killing wasn’t planned or done through using intelligence.”
The drone footage released by Israel appears central in this shift in sentiment toward Sinwar, said Gershon Baskin, a former Israeli hostage negotiator who is now Middle East director of the diplomacy advocacy group, International Communities Organization.
That video shows a badly damaged building littered with dust and debris, exposed wires and scattered furniture. It also shows a man, which the military said was Sinwar, sitting motionless with his back to the drone, in a chair, his face covered with a cloth.
His arm appeared to be severely wounded. Then suddenly he heaved a piece of wood at the drone, attempting to bring it down, but he failed. The video provided by the military ended at that point, and Sinwar was killed as a tank fired on the building soon after.
A senior Arab official involved in cease-fire negotiations said they were surprised Israel released the footage, as it could contribute to a continuing defiance among the Palestinian public as well as militants in Gaza. Baskin, the former Israeli negotiator, said Israel didn’t seem to account for how the release of the drone footage could invigorate not only the Palestinian public but much of the region.
📷 People perform the absentee funeral prayer for Sinwar at a destroyed mosque in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis this past week. Photo: Rizek Abdeljawad/Zuma Press
“The Israeli political system has no awareness whatsoever—and they don’t care—what the message is to the Arab world,” Baskin said. “This is Netanyahu selling himself, pursuing his political survival, and saying, ‘I am the hero, I killed Nasrallah, I killed Sinwar.’ Israel is signaling, ‘[Militant leaders] are never out of our reach and we will get to every single one of them.’”
The Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment on the video and the military didn’t respond.
The question likely troubling governments across the region is how to react if there is a surge in pro-Palestinian demonstrations urging them to take a tougher line on Israel.
Jordan, a kingdom with restrictions on speech and assembly, has generally tolerated frequent pro-Palestinian protests over the past year, including some where protesters have chanted pro-militant slogans while waving Hamas flags. Jordan is likely trying to avoid the unrest a crackdown on protests could create, analysts say.
Other countries are less lenient.
Saudi Arabia, which effectively bans any form of protest, has sporadically arrested people for demonstrating for the Palestinian cause while carrying Palestinian flags over the past year, according to Saudi officials. The kingdom, which is seeking the normalization of relations with Israel, is concerned that support for the Palestinians could spark political unrest and radicalize young Saudis, the officials said.
Egypt, an authoritarian state that is also a negotiator between Israel and Hamas, has arrested at least 120 people in recent months for protesting in support of Palestinians, fearing that small protests could quickly turn into a movement calling for a change of government in Cairo, according to Egyptian officials.
Pressure is building, however.
Some religious leaders have made statements praising Sinwar. The Grand Mufti of Oman called Sinwar a heroic leader. “Blessed is he for having died advancing forward without retracting back while fighting,” his statement said.
An influential Islamic-Egyptian institution, Al-Azhar University, issued a strong statement following Sinwar’s death, praising Palestinian resistance and criticizing the labeling of those involved in it as terrorists. It was also critical of Arab states that back Israel.
📷 Following Sinwar’s killing, the influential Islamic-Egyptian institution, Al-Azhar University, issued a statement praising Palestinian resistance. Photo: Dina Sakr/REUTERS
Even one of Hamas’s most bitter rivals in the Palestinian movement, the Fatah party that governs the West Bank, on Friday said it mourned Sinwar. It called him a “martyr” and said his death wouldn’t dissuade the Palestinian people from pursuing freedom.
Saleh al-Batati, Suha Ma’ayeh and Abeer Ayyoub contributed to this article.
Write to Omar Abdel-Baqui at omar.abdel-baqui@wsj.com and Summer Said at summer.said@wsj.com
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/in-death-hamas-leader-may-have-won-wider-support-than-when-he-was-alive-7d3b5ef5?st=ba78vb