by: Joshua Spurlock ~ Mideast Update
Gazans rise against Hamas’s tyranny, chanting ‘Hamas out!’ despite death threats by the militia (illustrative).
Friday, 28 March 2025 | The Gazan protests against Hamas continued on Thursday, and so the ruling terror group resorted to accusing them of one of the worst crimes they could imagine: collaborating with Israel. Then Hamas threatened them. A public statement from Gaza terror groups including Hamas called the protestors “suspicious” and “lackeys” for the “occupation”—Hamas’s term for Israel—and even claimed the protestors doomed the ceasefire negotiations.
The My Palestine news account on X (formerly Twitter) published the message, which was translated from Arabic by Google and alleged that “these suspicious people who are calling for the demise of the resistance and surrender…caused the occupation to back down from its negotiating position in the last few hours because of its reliance on the success of these agents in stabbing the resistance in the back. Therefore, these suspects are responsible, just like the occupation, for the bloodshed of our people, and they will be treated accordingly.”
The harshly-worded statement was viewed by Palestinian critics of Hamas on X as a pretext to violently crack down on the protests. Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, senior fellow and leader of the “Realign for Palestine” project at the Atlantic Council, noted on X that the statement was the terror groups’ way of “making it clear that they view the mass anti-Hamas protesters as ‘Israeli collaborators’…This blatant and despicable rhetorical escalation points to a likely attempt by the fascist Islamist group to begin going after the demonstrations and will likely begin targeting local clans, organizers, and anyone who is taking part in these protests.”
The statement certainly isn’t vague in its accusations, saying “a group of the occupation’s lackeys refuses to do anything but reveal their shame, their failure, their complicity and their cooperation with the occupation against our people and their cause, insisting on blaming the resistance.”
Another anti-Hamas Palestinian and self-proclaimed human rights activist, Ihab Hassan, posted the statement on X as well and linked the terror group accusations to violent intentions. He wrote: “The statement goes further, vowing to treat the protesters as ‘collaborators with Israel.’ In other words, Hamas is openly threatening to kill protesters—a grave and dangerous escalation.”
Hassan then posted multiple allegations of Hamas militias threatening to kill individual protestors and even attacking one in his home.
The dramatic turn of events in Gaza comes after Israel restarted the Gaza war when Hamas refused to release more Israeli hostages as part of an arrangement to extend the ceasefire. Since then, Israel has assassinated multiple Hamas officials responsible for internal affairs in Gaza, including government head Essam al-Da’alis, Mahmoud Marzouk Ahmed Abu-Watfa—interior minister who was responsible for Hamas internal security forces—and multiple key leaders in Hamas’ general security forces, according to the IDF X page.
Importantly in the context of the protests in Gaza, the IDF X post noted that the general security forces unit “was responsible for exposing ‘collaborators’, safeguarding senior Hamas members and assets within Gaza and abroad, and suppressing opposition to Hamas’ rule.”
While Israel is not claiming to be driving the protests, they are openly calling for the world to support them. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted to X on Wednesday: “For the first time in years, Gazans are rising up against Hamas—chanting ‘Hamas out!’ They know the truth: Hamas’s refusal to release the hostages is fueling war and the suffering of the people of Gaza. The world must support their struggle to break free from Hamas’ tyranny.
The United States and European states have also called for Hamas’s rule in Gaza to end. On Monday, US spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters in comments published by the State Department, “We are dealing with a terrorist organization that cannot remain at all in that region because of what they do…Hamas could release the hostages, which they still have, and the bodies of those that they’ve killed, and they could lay down their arms, and the suffering would end. All of this would end.”
Posted on March 28, 2025
Photo Credit: Basel Yazouri/Wikimedia.org
Photo License: Wikimedia
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