Signs of growing public criticism against Hamas among Gaza residents
Hamas is losing control of its citizens
As the humanitarian situation for the residents of the Gaza Strip continues to worsen amid the war instigated by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, rare signs of discontent and criticism against the Hamas government are starting to appear.
“The Hamas terrorist organization has lost control of Gaza, terrorists are fleeing south, civilians are looting Hamas bases, and they have no confidence in their government,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated.
Several recent incidents in the Gaza Strip seem to prove him right and are giving the world first glimpses of the growing discontent with the once popular Hamas government that was democratically elected in 2006.
One such example is an interview filmed inside al-Aqsa hospital in Gaza and broadcast live on air on Al Jazeera.
A reporter from the Qatar-based network, with a strong anti-Israel bias, was interviewing patients and refugees inside the hospital.
Al-Jazeera TV was asking this poor wounded old Palestinian man to give his eyewitness testimony; he said: what’s happening is criminal! Why is the resistance (Hamas) hiding among us? Why don’t they go to hell and hide there? They are not resistance!!
— Aimen Dean (@AimenDean) November 14, 2023
The journalist cut him off! pic.twitter.com/evrVfpCfj5
During the segment, the reporter turned to an elderly, wounded Palestinian man to listen to his eyewitness account, not expecting the man to blame Hamas for the difficult situation in Gaza, live on air.
“What’s happening is criminal! Why is the resistance [Hamas] hiding among us? Why don’t they go to hell and hide there? They are not resistance,” the man said, before the reporter abruptly took the microphone away and turned back to the camera.
Ever since the IDF began to instruct residents of northern Gaza to evacuate to the south, numerous reports by Israeli sources – as well as Palestinian – have shown Hamas militants actively trying to prevent its civilians from leaving, even shooting and beating some of them.
Civilians in Gaza have increasingly challenged Hamas publicly, such as crowds hurling stones at Hamas police officers who cut in front of a water line in the southern Gaza Strip and beat them with their fists until they scattered, a source told the Associated Press.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
