The Palestinian terror group Hamas is executing and kidnapping the very people of Gaza it claims to be fighting for. Days after thousands of angry Gazans took to the streets in a rare show of dissent against Hamas, the group responded with a brutal crackdown, executing at least six protesters. Many others have been publicly flogged, several kidnapped, and numerous Gazans remain missing, according to reports on mainstream and social media.
Ravaged by more than a year of war that has so far claimed more than 50,000 lives, Gaza witnessed its largest anti-Hamas protest last week. Thousands of men and women poured into the streets of several towns in the enclave, demanding that the group step down from power.
Chants of “The people do not want war. The people do not want Hamas”, echoed through the streets as Hamas faced an unprecedented wave of protests that sustained for days.
However, days later Hamas cracked down on the Gazans who dared to protest in the most brutal way.
HAMAS KILLS SIX, ABDUCTS MANY, STARTS BRUTAL CRACKDOWN AFTER DAYS OF ANTI-HAMAS PROTESTS
Following days of protests in Gaza, which Hamas sees as defiance against its power and authority, the group cracked down on demonstrators, executing six people and publicly flogging others.
Several other Gazans who protested against Hamas have gone missing in the next few days.
Among those killed by Hamas was 22-year-old Oday Nasser Al’ Rabays, a resident of Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood.
Rabay, who had called for public protests and spoken out against Hamas on social media, was abducted by Hamas men, tortured for four hours, and then returned to his family as he laid dead, according to a report in The Times of Israel.
“Hamas is oppressing people in a brutal way… Like a puppy on a rope around his neck, they dragged him to the door of his house and told his family that this is the punishment for those who complain about Hamas,” Mazen Shat, a senior police officer affiliated with Fatah from Ramallah and a vocal critic of Hamas, told UK-based The Telegraph.
The killing of a “22-year-old Palestinian who dared to protest” was noted by Israel’s official X handle too.
“He (Rabay) was dragged by a rope around his neck, beaten with clubs and metal rods in front of passersby,” a Gazan, seeking anonymity, told the Rishon LeZion-based Israeli news outlet, Ynet.
Another Gazan was kidnapped, beaten, shot in the legs, and left wounded in a public square in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp for speaking against Hamas, reported the Israeli news outlet.
“It is about people’s lives… We want to stop the killing and displacement, no matter the price. We can’t stop Israel from killing us, but we can press Hamas to give concessions,” Beit Hanoun resident Mohammed Abu Saker told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Although Gaza saw uprisings in 2019 and 2023, they were swiftly suppressed by Hamas. The threat of violent crackdowns often kept Gazans from taking to the streets for years.
But for Gazans, experts say, it might be the moment of despair when they believe they have nothing more to lose.
WHY ANTI-HAMAS PROTESTS IN GAZA ARE DIFFERENT THIS TIME?
After 50,000 lives lost, 20 million displaced, towns reduced to rubble, and infrastructure damage amounting to USD 18.5 billion, Gazans are rising against Hamas, which refuses to end the war it started and halt its atrocities against its own people. Hit hard by Israeli attacks and attacks by its own rulers, Hamas, the people of Gaza are rising in defiance, no longer willing to endure the terrorist bodies’ brutal undemocratic rule and endless war.
And the protests might be a desperate bid by Gazans to resist Hamas’ oppression, and end the endless war.
A poll conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) in September 2024, noted that there was a significant decline in support for Hamas, which started the war by massacring over a thousand people in Israel on October 7, 2023.
According to Sam Habeeb, a UK-based Gazan, last week’s anti-Hamas demonstrations were “the first time Gaza witnessed such large-scale protests”.
“It is unacceptable to restrict the freedom of protest and kill and torture Uday Al Rabay, a protester. Not all people in Gaza are part of Hamas, and they have the right to express their views freely,” Habeeb told The Telegraph.
The recent uprising against Hamas shows that dynamics in Gaza might have shifted, and the protests were different from those in the past. Gazans may finally have a chance to break free from Hamas’s grip, according to Egyptian political analyst Dalia Ziada.
Ziada argued on X that this “uprising” is “different” because Hamas is “lonely and devastated”, its “Qatari-sponsored media has lost credibility”, and Gazans, having lost everything, are no longer afraid to resist.
Yes, the anti-Hamas protests in Gaza mark a turning point, as Gazans, crushed by war and repression, refuse to be silenced by Hamas any longer. With Hamas increasingly isolated and its grip on power weakening, Gazans might be trying to bring about an end to the war, whose end is tied to the fortunes of Hamas. But a threatened Hamas executing and torturing the very same people it claims to protect.
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