From June, 2023
When Hamas wages war, ordinary Gazans pay an even
steeper price. As one young Gazan told the Financial
Times, “When the Israelis came, Hamas went and hid in
the tunnels, and left us outside.” A participant in the
2019 “We Want to Live” protest movement told +972
magazine, “None of us young people actually voted for
Hamas… [it] glorifies itself as the resistance to the
occupation, but they sit in their palaces with their
Qatari passports while we pay the price.”
Indications of Gazan discomfort with Hamas ideology and
policies, which have been growing, are likely
understated, given the recent finding that 62 percent
of Gazans believe “people in the Strip cannot criticize
Hamas’s authority without fear.” One dissenter,
speaking with +972 Magazine on the condition of
anonymity, said, “We’ve been through four horrific wars
and accomplished nothing.”
Fatima’s brother used to work as a street vendor,
selling vegetables his mother grew. But Hamas police in
Gaza would confiscate his wares, demanding bribes to
let him work and threatening him with jail, beatings,
and worse.
Under Hamas rule, the line between taxation and
racketeering is a blurred one. According to Palestinian
polling, 73 percent of Palestinians believe Hamas
institutions are corrupt. In 2019, after Hamas imposed
a series of new taxes, approximately 1,000 Gazans waged
street demonstrations under the banner “We Want to
Live.” One protester observed, “Dozens of Hamas
officials have grown their wealth through financial
corruption” while “draining our people by imposing more
taxes [and] ignoring [our] poverty.” In 2022, the U.S.
Treasury Department targeted Hamas finance official and
a network of Hamas-affiliated individuals and companies
for having funneled over $500 million into a secret
investment portfolio, noting that Hamas “has generated
vast sums of revenue… while destabilizing Gaza, which
is facing harsh living and economic conditions.”
While open criticism of Hamas’s war footing remains
rare, a closer look shows a population questioning the
wisdom of perpetual conflict. Last August, on a rare
occasion when Hamas refrained from firing rockets into
Israel during a period of escalation, 68 percent of
Gazans supported the decision. Gazan mother Halima
Jundiya, noting the trauma her children still endure
from the 2014 conflict, told The New York Times, “We
don’t want Hamas to fire rockets. We don’t want another
war.” Another 2022 poll found that 53 percent of Gazans
agree at least somewhat that “Hamas should stop calling
for Israel’s destruction, and instead accept a
permanent two-state solution based on the 1967
borders.”
The kind of extortion Fatima describes has driven many
Gazans, including her brother, to flee the Strip. A
2018 poll found that 48 percent of Gazans want to
emigrate. The journey is a dangerous one, leaving
would-be migrants vulnerable to further exploitation by
black market smugglers. One mother recounted how her
escape to Belgium with a daughter who has autism cost
$11,000 in bribes. Others perish in the attempt. In
2014, nearly 400 Gazans drowned after smugglers rammed
their boat as it attempted to flee to Europe. As one
young man put it, “there isn’t anyone [here] who
doesn’t know someone who’s migrated to Turkey to sell
his organs to help his parents… Hamas glorifies itself
as the resistance to the occupation, but they sit in
their palaces with their Qatari passports while we pay
the price.”
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