Disenchantment With Hamas? Too Little, Too Late
"It started October 7, and it wants to end it on its own terms. But time is ticking with no potential hope of ending this.""Hamas is still seeking its slice of power.""Hamas does not know how to get down from the tree it climbed."Raed al-Kelani, 47, former Palestinian Authority government worker in Gaza"If the death and hunger of their people do not make any difference to them, they do not need to make any difference to us.""Cursed be everyone who trafficked in our blood, burned our hearts and homes, and ruined our lives."Gaza photojournalist Motaz Azaiza"When you realize six months in or seven months in that Gaza is completely destroyed, your life as a Gazan is completely destroyed, that's where people are coming from when they are not supportive of Sinwar or Haniyeh."Obada Shtaya, co-founder Institute for Social and Economic Progress"Are there people in Gaza who blame Hamas? Of course.""This is a natural thing in societies that some people are for and some people are against."Basem Naim, Hamas spokesman
No
one really knows how many of these voices exist. Palestinians who
bitterly oppose Hamas. These are not necessarily, on the other hand,
Palestinians whose humanitarian instincts were awoken with the news of
the horrendous atrocities committed by Hamas operatives, by Palestinian
Islamic Jihad, by the PLFP, and by ordinary Palestinians from Gaza who
crossed the destroyed border openings from Gaza into Israel on October 7
to drive, bicycle, or 'helicopter' into southern Israel, converging in
the early morning hours toward kibbutz farming communities and the Nova
music festival.
If
only, for them, it had ended there. The work done of humiliating the
Israeli government, its military, its intelligence experts, as it went
about its methodical work of destroying Jewish lives, from babies to the
elderly, entire families whose homes went up in flames with them
within. Jewish girls and women who were mutilated, gang-raped, murdered.
A day of unrestrained savagery and barbaric bloodshed. The anguish and
agony suffered by Jews found their malevolent counterpart in the joy
taken by the sadists tasked by Hamas to slaughter them.
The
terror in the minds and hearts of the 240 hostages, the female IDF
soldiers whose initial alerts had been ignored. The confusion and fear
in the thoughts of children taken by violent strangers from their homes
in Israel, into Gaza, victims of a plan to use their young lives as
collateral in future prisoner exchanges between a bereft Israel and a
confident terrorist group. A terrorist group that factored in the deaths
of their own populations while using them as human shields, knowing the
reputational damage it would do to the Israel Defense Forces in the
West.
Hamas has been criticized by human rights groups for its suppression of civil liberties Getty Images |
The
Palestinians who today are bitterly opposed to Hamas discovered this
frame of mind, when it became abundantly clear that it was not only
Israelis their terrorist government calculated as a means to an end, but
they themselves, the ordinary people of Gaza who now suffer their own
version of death and destruction, the agony of displacement, of never
knowing when another precision bomb targeting the Hamas operatives
seeking shelter in their schools, hospitals, mosques and the plenitude
of tunnels will also strike them.
On
the very day of the attack, it was a matter of jubilation among
Palestinians that their very own terrorist government was delivering a
lethal blow of immense proportions to the Jews living geographically on
territory they claimed as theirs, ancestral rights be damned.
Palestinians both in Gaza and the West Bank felt vindicated for the
limitless hate they were taught to nurture, regarding Jews as
colonialist usurpers squatting on Palestinian land.
Immediately
following the gruesome events of October 7, Palestinians expressed
reverence for the exploit of their Hamas leaders, extolling their
'courage' and military prowess in subduing the 'occupation' in their
exquisitely planned and executed mass atrocity with its celebrated death
count. And then, suddenly, they found themselves devastated by the
response, for every action has its consequences and theirs should have
been anticipated, but evidently was not. The new reality of tens of
thousands dead was a counterpart exchange for October 7.
Now,
a handful of Gazans express their rage at Hamas, yet even so, holding
Israel to blame for everything that has destroyed their insular world.
Hamas may have been responsible for provoking Israel into invading Gaza
for the purpose of eradicating Hamas which has promised endless October
7s, but it is Israel that has pummeled Gaza into rubble, deprived Gazans
of their lives, their homes, their future.
Palestinian women walk by ruined buildings in central Gaza, Getty Images |
Mr.
al-Kelani, formerly a functionary of Fatah/Palestinian Authority, now
distributes food aid in shelters to displaced Gazans. Even while Gazans
understand Hamas was aware its actions would start a war causing heavy
civilian casualties, failing to provide food, water or shelter for
survival of the population it governed, they also knew that leaders of
Hamas considered them fodder in the ignition of a permanent state of
war, on the path of reviving the Palestinian 'cause'.
A
March survey by the West Bank-based Institute for Social and Economic
Progress polled Gazans about their feelings for Hamas leaders. To which
some three-quarters opposed Yahya Sinwar, the Gaza-based Hamas leader,
while a similar number opposed its political leader in exile, Ismail
Haniyeh. Another more recent poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy
and Survey Research in Gaza indicated support for Hamas leaders in Gaza
to be somewhat higher.
"They could have surrendered a long time ago and saved us from all this suffering",
offered one Gazan who fled to Egypt, stating her friends and family
anticipate Hamas will be defeated in Gaza and only then will the war
end. The feeling among some Gazans is that Hamas is determined to raise
its global profile by championing universal Palestinian causes for which
ordinary Gazans are destined to pay the price. While Hamas and Israeli
hostages were safe in underground tunnels, they say, Gazans suffer above
ground with no bomb protection.
"I do not want to sacrifice my life, my home and house for anyone.""There is uncontrolled anger against Hamas."Ameen Abed, resident of Jabaliya, northern Gaza
The UN estimates that around 250,000 people are affected by the Israeli evacuation orders Reuters |
Labels: Gaza Destruction, Hamas Atrocities in Israel, Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, Israeli Hostages, October 7, Palestinian Gazans
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