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‘STOP TURNING GAZA INTO RUBBLE’: FED UP WITH WAR AND HAMAS RULE,
PALESTINIANS RAMP UP THEIR PROTEST  
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Nagham Zbeedat
March 26, 2025
Haaretz
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_ 'Hamas has nothing left to offer – nothing left to ensure even
our basic survival,' one Gazan tells Haaretz, as Palestinians protest
across the enclave, desperate for a deal that will stop Israel's
bombings and end the war _

Palestinians protest to demand an end to the war, chanting anti-Hamas
slogans in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza on Wednesday, credit
Stringer/Reuters

 

Will Hamas surrender if Gazans demand it? Frustration is growing in
the enclave as the indirect cease-fire negotiations with Israel remain
stalled. On the ground and across social media, Palestinians in Gaza
– many of whom once feared criticizing Hamas – are now speaking
out, organizing and protesting against their leadership that has
overseen the destruction of the enclave in an apocalyptic 17-month war
with Israel.

Residents of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip took to the streets
Tuesday demanding the departure of Hamas
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which has ruled the enclave since seizing power from the Palestinian
Authority in 2007. Among them was Mohammed, who has been urging others
to join protests across Gaza. Speaking to Haaretz by phone, he
expressed a deep desire for change.

"Hamas doesn't represent us," the 29-year-old says. Before the war,
Mohammed struggled to make ends meet; he couldn't afford college or
even consider getting married. He took on any available work –
construction, carpentry, sales – filling in wherever he was needed.

* 'We don't want to die': Gazans protest Hamas rule, war with Israel
in rare show of dissent
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* 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza. This is how it
happened, day by day
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* Why don't Gazans rise up and oust Hamas? Dismantling a deeply
dishonest claim
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When the war began, tragedy struck his family. He lost his
grandfather, two uncles and several distant relatives in the Israeli
bombardments. His sister and parents survived, but their lives, like
those of many others in Gaza, have been shattered.

As demonstrations ramp up in Beit Lahia, Mohammed recalls similar ones
in Khan Yunis in the south before the war, particularly in August
2023, when Hamas security forces cracked down on demonstrators
protesting the organization's shortcomings in administering the Strip.

A child carries a sign reading "The children of Palestine: We want to
live," on Tuesday, the first day of protests in Beit Lahia.Credit: AFP

"Hamas attacked the organizers of those protests. But now, there's no
power that can censor Gazans' voices," Mohammed says, adding that
demonstrators now are fueled by everything they have endured
during the war
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"All we want is to live in peace. The borders are closed, danger is
everywhere, and we're trapped. It's enough that we've been forced into
silence for so long. We should be the ones determining our lives –
no one else should represent us."

Before the war, criticism of Hamas
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heavy consequences. "Anyone who spoke out was labeled a traitor,"
Mohammed says.

People's expression of the truth 'can go astray when they have no
leadership to guide them, or when they lose trust in the people meant
to represent them,' says Mohammed, a 29-year-old Gazan.

"Now, after losing so many of our loved ones, after watching friends
and neighbors dig through the rubble to retrieve the bodies of family
members, we're speaking from a place of deep pain and despair. We're
the ones under fire. We're the ones losing everything."

Mohammed believes that history has proved the power of collective
action. "The conscience of the masses is always truthful – no
rational person can deny that," he says. "But people's expression of
that truth can go astray when they have no leadership to guide them,
or when they lose trust in the people meant to represent them."

Mohammed says that the Gazans protesting now are the same ones who
resisted Israel's internal displacement plan for the Strip, the same
ones who took to the streets as part of the 'We Want to Live' movement
during the war. 'We Want to Live,' which formed in 2019, is a
grassroots youth movement calling for increased economic opportunity
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the toppling of Hamas rule.

Palestinians chant slogans during an anti-Hamas protest in Beit Lahia
on Wednesday. Credit: AFP

'We Want to Live' is now trending on Facebook in Arabic – many
Gazans favor Facebook over X. Another group, 'We Want Dignity,' also
wants Hamas out, but that movement formed more recently, during the
war.

"Suppressing us won't work. Accusing us of betrayal won't work. Hamas
has nothing left to offer – nothing left to concede to ensure even
our basic survival," Mohammed argues, adding that the war has changed
everything.

"The release of hostages
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no longer enough to stop the massacres," he says, referring to Israeli
bombardments. "And now, Hamas is out of options."

More protesters in Beit Lahia on Wednesday.Credit: Stringer/Reuters

Mohammed sees only a few possible futures for the group, none of them
promising. Maybe Hamas will meet the fate of Saddam Hussein and his
Ba'ath Party in Iraq, "collapsing under the weight of war and
resistance." Or the group might follow the path of Hezbollah in
Lebanon
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"entrenched in power but isolated and constrained."

There is also the possibility of a transformation, like that of Syria
after the Assad regime and under its new president
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Ahmad al-Sharaa, "shifting from insurgency to political legitimacy."
Or maybe Hamas "will take the most desperate route – the path of a
gambler, refusing to fold, playing until the last moment, clinging to
a hope that may never come." Fears about that option are why Mohammed
and hundreds in Gaza are protesting, he says.

Muna, 27, returned to Gaza with her family just months before the war.
For five years she had worked as an English teacher in the United Arab
Emirates, as her husband forged a career as an engineer.

Those who claim we're against the resistance – no, we're not. We're
against the leadership. 
Muna, a 27-year-old Gazan

Muna and her husband dreamed of rebuilding their lives in their
homeland, of raising their three children surrounded by family. But
last April, an Israeli airstrike on their neighborhood in Rafah in the
south killed her husband and all three of their children.

Now, Muna lives with her parents, two sisters and her brother. Her
voice conveys both exhaustion and defiance. "Those who claim we're
against the resistance – no, we're not. We're against the
leadership," she says.

She recalls how 'We Want to Live' began long before the war, a
desperate cry from people drowning in hardship and poverty. "Even
before the bombs fell, people were struggling to survive," Muna says.

"Meanwhile, the people in power clung to their positions of power,
filled their pockets, sent their children abroad and lived in comfort.
They never listened to the cries of the people. And now, they're
trading in our blood for their power."

A boy in Beit Lahia on Tuesday carrying a banner reading "The blood of
our children is not cheap."Credit: AFP

Muna believes that Gazans' demands such as "Stop turning Gaza into
rubble while you're sitting in safety" shouldn't be met with verbal
sparring or accusations of treason.

She lists the names of her children, Rawan, Hamza and Inas. She
mentions her cousin Hadil, and her friends Heba and Sahar. "They all
wanted to live."

She remembers the home she built in Rafah, the photos she took of her
children laughing. That home is gone now. "The house I built,
organized and decorated to create a warm home – it's all gone," she
says.

Muna still dreams of a country to call her own, of the sea off Gaza
"no longer tainted with blood." She even dreams of returning home,
even though she knows that her home no longer exists.

But Muna has lost hope in change. Despite her support for 'We Want to
Live' and protests against the government, she believes that "this
awakening has come too late." As she puts it, "This time, 'Better late
than never' doesn't apply. The time lost can never be regained. Its
cost has been an entire generation's future, countless souls,
unimaginable suffering."

She concludes: "I don't think this last attempt will change anything.
The fate imposed on our land is already sealed."

Anti-Hamas protesters in a ruined street in Beit Lahia on
Wednesday.Credit: AFP

On social media, critical voices ratcheted up even before the recent
protest. One X user
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the use of weapons when they failed to protect the people, while
another wondered about Hamas members
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to attend the group's hostage release ceremonies but were nowhere to
be found when Rafah was being bombed last week.

Others suggest Israel will try to interfere in the burgeoning protest
movement. Abed al-Hamid, a Palestinian journalist and TV host of the
Gaza-based al-Mwatin channel, posted on X
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keen to sabotage the protests in Gaza because, at the start of the
war, it promoted to the world that Gaza is Hamas
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the people are terrorists."

Al-Hamid added: "It gave itself an excuse and cover to commit
massacres. Therefore, Israel is trying to promote this narrative
through its platforms to provide Hamas affiliates with justification
to kill our people under the accusation of collaboration."

Hussein Jamal, a political researcher from Gaza, took to X
to criticize efforts to suppress protesters
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"Would any sane person decide to silence a suffering nation under
genocide expressing its anger?" In a later post, Jamal defended the
protesters
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accusations of betrayal, stating, "The people of Beit Lahia, Jabalya
and Beit Hanoun are the ones who halted the displacement plan during
the war."

Children carry signs reading "We refuse to die," during the rally in
Beit Lahia on Tuesday.Credit: AFP

Omar Abd Rabou, a social and political activist from the Nuseirat
refugee camp, has openly criticized Hamas and described its political
agenda as "Russian roulette." He wrote on X
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others "were summoned by the Hamas intelligence department in Nuseirat
without any official notice or explanation, contrary to proper
procedures." He did not elaborate on who this "We" was, but he said
that "we were threatened with the arrival of an armed group to arrest
us if we did not attend tomorrow."

He called this situation a "grave violation" marked by blatant
disregard for legal procedure and the rights of individuals in Gaza.

In a later post
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to imply that he had been coerced, Abd Rabou added that after his
"interview" with Hamas intelligence people in Gaza, the discussion
centered on "some recent propositions and the nature of the work."

He added that he was treated well during his "interview," which ended
with him signing a pledge: "I affirm that I do not, in any way,
support the abuse or defamation of the Hamas government or movement,
nor do I advocate for any popular movements or incitement against any
individual or party."

According to social media posts, protests demanding an end to the war
and calling for Hamas to relinquish power were due to take place this
week across the Strip including in Deir al-Balah and Nuseirat in
central Gaza, and in the Jabalya refugee camp in the north. The stage
is set for a tense stand-off between the Hamas ruling class and an
increasingly defiant Gazan popular resistance to their rule.

More articles by Nagham Zbeedat
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_Haaretz
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is an independent daily newspaper with a broadly liberal outlook both
on domestic issues and on international affairs. It has a journalistic
staff of some 330 reporters, writers and editors. The paper is perhaps
best known for its Op-ed page, where its senior columnists - among
them some of Israel's leading commentators and analysts - reflect on
current events. Haaretz plays an important role in the shaping of
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* Gaza
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* Hamas
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* Israel
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