Gazan protests against Hamas’s failed leadership broke out last week on Tuesday and continued throughout the Strip on Wednesday, the first public opposition shown to Hamas’s rule since the October 7 attacks.
These demonstrations, combined with Israel’s vigorous campaign, offer the brightest hope yet that a Gaza freed from Hamas’s bloodthirsty rule may actually be possible in the near future. The anti-Hamas demonstrations also expose the folly of Western activists, who staged pro-Hamas demonstrations in the name of these same Palestinians.
Last Tuesday, hundreds of Gazans marched through the town of Beit Lahiya, near the Gaza Strip’s northern extremity. The demonstrators chanted “Out, out, out, Hamas out,” “We want to live,” and “Yes to peace, no to Hamas’s tyrannical rule. Enough of the war, enough of the destruction in Gaza.”
Among those demanding an end to Hamas’s destructive rule were the mayor of Beit Lahiya and other local leaders. “We demand peace and security,” said one. “We say no to tyranny and for setting this city on fire. We decide, and we will decide who will rule this city. No human could endure these conditions.”
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By Tuesday evening, protests had broken out in the southern city of Khan Yunis, long considered a Hamas stronghold, where crowds chanted that Hamas was a terrorist organization.
Activists planned nine more anti-Hamas protests on Wednesday, including two in the southern city of Khan Younis, two in central refugee camps, and five throughout Gaza City and its environs in the north. “Our voices must reach all the spies who sold our blood,” declared a message shared across social media, although CNN had not verified the original source. “Let them hear your voice, let them know that Gaza is not silent, and that there is a people who will not accept to be eradicated.”
Such protests are rare because Hamas usually suppresses them violently and brutally. “Gazans turned out in anti-Hamas street demonstrations, braving gunfire and prison, in 2019 and again on July 30, 2023. This is the most substantial mass protest since then,” described Center for Peace Communications president Joseph Braude.
“Since October 7th, you have to realize that Hamas brutally cracks down on any opposition,” said CBN Middle East bureau chief Chris Mitchell on “Washinton Watch.” “That means beatings in public. It could be torture, could be imprisonment, and even death. So, for any group of hundreds, and maybe even more, of people to come against Hamas, [it] could be a big deal.”
But the Gazans have gotten desperate. According to some reports, when Hamas members showed up at the protests, they were greeted with showers of stones.
“Basic goods such as flour, eggs, and milk have become completely unavailable” in Gaza, notes i24 News. “A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of sugar rose from 2 shekels ($0.55) to 100 shekels ($27.29). Baby formula is available in only limited amounts, with each pack costing 150 shekels ($40.93), while a pack of diapers now costs 300 shekels ($81.85). Now that electricity to Gaza’s desalination plant has been cut, drinking water is now limited.”
Contrary to international opinion, which places all the blame for these conditions on Israel and reserves no blame for Hamas, most Gazans understand that the primary instigator of their calamity lives closer to home. According to a January 2025 poll by the Palestine-based Institute for Social and Economic Progress (ISEP), only 6% of Gazans would prefer Hamas to govern them after the war, and only 5.3% would vote for Hamas in future elections.
Israel’s devastating attacks have also decimated Hamas’s battalions and forced what is left of its command structure into underground bunkers, a factor that cannot help but encourage the protestors. “The IDF is expanding its presence in both the North and the South,” said Mitchell, “and maybe they feel a sense of security in case the IDF actually continues its offensive against Hamas.” In the same ISEP poll, 70% of Gazans believe Hamas now lacks the ability to govern, and only 12.4% expect it to remain in power.
In fact, Israeli officials have recently encouraged Gazans to rise up against Hamas, if for no other reason than so that they can seek a better life elsewhere. “Take the U.S. president’s advice,” urged Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz last week. “Return the hostages and remove Hamas, and other options will open up for you, including leaving for other places in the world for those who desire.” At the same time, he warned, that if Hamas remained in power, “Israel will operate with strength you have not yet seen.”
This widespread rejection of Hamas raises the question of whom Gazans will turn to for leadership. The answer: families and clans. It turns out that, when a group of people is locked into their hometown for generations, with no prospects for removal or intermingling with others, close family relationships assert themselves as the dominant social allegiance.
Last July, Israel was “actively looking for local tribes and families on the ground to work with them” in shaping a post-Hamas Gaza, according to Tahani Mustafa, senior Palestine analyst at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, although Palestine’s clans were still too afraid of Hamas to even talk to Israel. In early January, Gazan clan leaders publicly asked Mahmoud Abbas, president of the hapless and corrupt Palestinian Authority, to take charge of Gaza.
These same clan leaders have now endorsed the anti-Hamas protests in a statement:
“O our steadfast people in Gaza, enough is enough. There is no longer room for silence or waiting for years of oppression, starvation, and destruction. Now our people are being pushed toward destruction without mercy or responsibility. In the name of the clans of Gaza, we call on you to a popular uprising against injustice, and a march of anger that will shake the ground under the feet of those who sold our blood and exploited our suffering for their own narrow interests.
“The people of Gaza have sacrificed the most precious and valuable, and what was the reward? More death, more hunger, more humiliation! We will not accept to remain fuel for narrow calculations, and we will not allow this farce to continue. Enough burdening our lives and the future of our children. Enough disregarding our suffering!
“Hamas must lift its hand off Gaza immediately and end this unjust siege imposed on us due to decisions that do not represent us. We call on you all to take to the streets and make our voice[s] heard to the world. Gaza is not held hostage by anyone. Gaza will be liberated by the will of its people.”
Notice that these influential Gazan leaders do not call upon Israel to unilaterally end the siege of Gaza, as ignorant internationalists might, but that they call upon Hamas to end the siege by relinquishing their grip on power.
Just because most Gazans want to defenestrate Hamas does not necessarily mean they will succeed. After all, Hamas still holds the weapons, and they have amply demonstrated that they are capable of violently assaulting their own people. One report suggested that Hamas was planning to attack Wednesday’s demonstrations and that the demonstrators will “need protection from Hamas.”
The only force around capable of defending the protestors is the Israeli military, who aren’t exactly popular among the protestors, nor are they likely to receive a liberator’s welcome.
Yet the widespread protests do offer the first glimmer of hope that the end of Hamas’s stranglehold over Gaza is near. “The more attention these brave souls get, the more they can help bring change for the better to Gaza and the broader region,” Braude offered. “It’s potentially very big if it grows, and this could be a turning point,” mused Mitchell.
“As I pray almost every day for the peace of Israel, I include the Palestinians, the Arabs that live there,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, “because there are many people there that don’t want what Hamas has been dishing out.”
“There are two groups who can’t stand the anti-Hamas protests in Gaza,” claimed Palestinian Christian Ihab Hassane, “Hamas themselves — and those who’ve spent the last 17 months claiming that all of Gaza is Hamas.”
Originally published at The Washington Stand.
Joshua Arnold is Media Coordinator for Family Research Council.
