Palestinians in Gaza increasingly angry with Hamas as war with Israel drags on

But while the majority of Palestinians in Gaza blame Israel for their suffering, according to a March poll, they also appear to be turning their anger toward the militants. In interviews with more than a dozen Gaza residents, people said they blamed Hamas for the attacks in Israel and – weary of war and desperate to meet their basic needs – simply wanted to see the peace as quickly as possible.

If Hamas wanted to start a war, “it should have first made people safe – guaranteed them a place of refuge, not thrown them into suffering that no one can bear,” said Salma El-Qadomi, 33, independent journalist displaced 11 times since the start of the conflict.

Palestinians want leaders “who will not drag people into a war like this,” she said. “Almost everyone around me shares the same thoughts: we want this cascade of blood to stop. Seventeen years of destruction and war are enough.

Hamas, an Islamist political and military movement, was founded in 1987 during the first Palestinian uprising. He staged some of the deadliest attacks on Israeli civilians and went on to win Palestinian legislative elections, defeating the secular Fatah party that rules the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

The rival parties entered into a bruising power struggle, fighting a brief but bloody battle in Gaza in 2007, when Hamas took control. For years, the group has fought sporadic wars with Israel, but it has also presided over periods of calm.

He used the smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt to manage the territory’s beleaguered economy and crack down on criminal gangs that preyed on the local population. But more recently, Hamas’s fortunes have turned. The tunnel trade dried up after Egypt sealed off the network, and the group’s isolation deepened as some Arab states began normalizing relations with Israel.

Yet many observers, including Israeli leaders, were convinced that Hamas wanted to remain in power and had little interest in a major conflict. The October attack took many Palestinians – and much of the world – by surprise.

Hamas said it launched the attack in part to avenge what it claims was Israel’s “desecration” of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest site known to Jews – who also consider it sacred – under the name of the Temple Mount.

The attack, a terrifying rampage through communities in southern Israel, initially boosted the group’s support in both Gaza and the West Bank, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Investigation, which conducted a survey in late November and early December.

Even recently, in a poll conducted over five days in March, a majority of respondents in both locations said Hamas’ decision to carry out the attack was “correct.”

But, according to the center’s researchers, “it is clear from the results… that support for the offensive does not mean support for Hamas.” Instead, the results show that three-quarters of Palestinians believe the attack refocused global attention on the conflict “after years of neglect.”

Anger currently rising in the enclave appears to be centered on deadlocked ceasefire negotiations, with Hamas insisting on a permanent truce and Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza before handing over hostages.

“We can’t live like this anymore,” said a 29-year-old displaced lawyer and mother of three, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. Hours before the interview, she said, Israeli drones fired on her and her children on the street in central Gaza.

“We must be able to mourn what happened to us, bury those who were killed and search for those who disappeared,” she said. “We want by all means for the war to end, whatever the cost. »

Fedaa Zayed, a 35-year-old writer from northern Gaza, believes Hamas is avoiding a ceasefire deal because it does not want to admit defeat. She fled her apartment in Gaza City on the second day of the war and now resides in Rafah, on the border with Egypt.

“In reality, we are in full retreat, the home front is destroyed,” Zayed said. “As a people, we want a ceasefire and the withdrawal of the Israeli army. We want to return to our homes even if they are in ruins. »

Hamas says it understands the frustrations of those suffering in Gaza. “But these complaints do not reflect the political situation,” said Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official.

Instead, he said, “we are listening to thousands of voices who emphasize that despite the sacrifice, they refuse to abandon the grand goals that involve ending the occupation, liberating Jerusalem and creating of a Palestinian state.

Naim and other senior political leaders, including Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, are based outside Gaza. Inside the enclave, Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar, apparently the mastermind of the October 7 attacks, is believed to be holed up in a tunnel to escape Israeli strikes.

Hamas, however, never really tolerated dissent, and it arrested, imprisoned and beat activists who spoke out against its rule.

The group’s administration in Gaza was “full of corruption, nepotism and bias in favor of the movement,” said Mohamed, 35, a graphic designer from Rafah. He spoke on condition that only his first name be used, for fear of reprisals from the group’s fighters.

Also in Rafah, Ayman, 46, said he voted for Hamas in 2006 because he thought the Palestinian Authority was corrupt. But what followed, he said, also speaking on condition that only his first name be used, “were a number of wars, the destruction of houses, the martyrdom of thousands of people, the difficulties of life and siege”.

Earlier this year, protests calling for a ceasefire broke out in at least two Gaza towns. In a video of a protest in January, a crowd of mostly men and boys marched down a street in the town of Khan Younis, holding anti-war signs and chanting: “The people want an end to the war!”

Analysts say they have also seen an increase in posts critical of Hamas on social media.

“Hamas… don’t get angry with us and try to understand us correctly,” Rami Haroon, a 45-year-old dentist and father of five, wrote on Facebook on April 20.

“We have been stifled by you for a long time,” wrote Haroon, who said he was not affiliated with any political party. “Your ship will sink and you will drown us with you.”

But as resentment simmers, many Palestinians “feel it a shame to attack Hamas in this Israeli attack,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, associate professor of political science at al-Azhar University in Gaza, now based in Cairo. “They do not want to be seen as collaborators with the occupation if they protest against Hamas now.”

In the March Political Center poll, a slim majority of Gaza respondents said they would prefer Hamas – rather than the Palestinian Authority – to control the strip after the war. Other options included the United Nations, the Israeli military, or one or more Arab countries.

“Given the scale of suffering in the Gaza Strip, this appears to be the most counterintuitive result of the entire survey,” the researchers wrote. At the same time, the results are consistent with the increase in the percentage of Palestinians in Gaza who believe Hamas will win the war and remain in power.

“There are many ways to understand this,” Washington-based Palestinian political analyst Khalil Sayegh said of the finding in an interview last week. “One of them is that people have understood and seen that Hamas remains and therefore they are afraid to express their opinions.”

According to Abusada, people “care about Palestine, about resistance, about freedom and independence. But above all, they want to live like humans, to be able to eat and sleep. »

“That’s why the criticism is now much more vocal and much more public,” he said. “Israel has truly sent us to the Stone Age. »

Mahfouz and Balousha reported from Cairo and Harb from London. Sarah Dadouch in Beirut contributed to this report.