April 27, 2024
Today at
17:43
Gaza residents are increasingly critical of Hamas because of Israel’s continued retaliation and the threat of famine. The British business newspaper Financial Times and the American Washington Post reported this on Saturday.
Palestinians in Gaza are increasingly expressing their anger at Hamas as Israel’s months-long retaliation has wreaked havoc, killing tens of thousands and pushing Gaza to the brink of famine.
The British business newspaper Financial Times reported this on Saturday. A poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research last November indicated that Hamas had 43 percent support in Gaza, but that support has declined to 34 percent, according to a poll from early March.
“There is no doubt that support for Hamas in Gaza is declining as more and more people see it as bearing some of the responsibility for the pain they are enduring,” said Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in the Financial Times.
The American newspaper Washington Post, which interviewed dozens of Gaza residents, also reported on Saturday about growing criticism among Palestinians of Hamas, because some say it is to blame for the protracted conflict that followed Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7. . An estimated 1,200 people were killed.
Edge of famine
Israel’s Gaza offensive has already claimed more than 34,000 Palestinian lives, according to local health authorities. According to United Nations agencies, Gaza is suffering from disease and hunger because Israel is severely restricting the supply of aid.
The World Food Program (WFP) warned this week that Gaza could officially enter famine within six weeks.
“Palestinians want leaders who will not drag their people into a war like this,” Salma El-Qadomi, a freelance journalist, told the Washington Post. “Almost everyone around me shares the same thoughts: We want this waterfall of blood to stop.”
“Critics have taken courage because there is no more to fear,” Azmi Keshawi, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, told the Financial Times. ‘Hamas fighters are busy with Israel and have no time to deal with the common man. Their police force is also affected by Israel.”
Other experts say Gaza residents have seen so much disaster that they feel they have nothing to lose if they speak out openly. The Washington Post outlines that analysts are seeing increasing criticism of Hamas on social media.
Damage to critical infrastructure in Gaza has already reached $18.5 billion, according to a World Bank report this month, the Financial Times writes. According to the bank, it will also take years before the estimated 26 million tons of rubble from bombed buildings is cleared.
