Palestinians in Gaza are increasingly willing to express their anger against Hamas, accusing the militant group of failing to foresee Israel’s severe retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the devastating six-month war.
Hamas has a tight grip on Gaza, but as Israel’s offensive reduced the enclave to rubble, killing tens of thousands and pushing the population to the brink of famine, residents like Nassim – a retired civil servant – began speaking out against the Islamist group.
“They should have predicted Israel’s reaction and thought about what would happen to the 2.3 million people in Gaza who have nowhere safe to go,” Nassim told the Financial Times from the southern city of Rafah, which is home to internally displaced families swarms throughout the destroyed area. “She [Hamas] should have been limited to military objectives.”
Mohammed, another Gazan, went further by blaming Yahya Sinwar – the leader of Hamas in Gaza and the mastermind of the October 7 attacks – directly for the devastation wrought by Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
“I pray every day that God will punish the person who put us in this situation,” Mohammed said. “I pray for Sinwar’s death every day.”
Even before the war, Hamas ruled a divided society in Gaza, and a significant electorate still supported its rival Fatah, which it expelled from Gaza in 2007.
The militant Islamist movement has exercised tight control over Gaza and its population in recent years, arresting opponents and leaving little room for dissent. The blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas took sole control in 2007 strangled the enclave’s economy and left most Gazans in need of aid.
After the October 7 attack, some in the Palestinian territories and across the Arab world expressed support for Hamas’s cross-border attack on Israel as a blow to the occupying power. According to Israeli authorities, about 1,200 people were killed in the attack.
Polls by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in November showed Hamas’s popularity in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank had increased compared to three months earlier. In Gaza, support rose from 38 percent to 43 percent and in the West Bank from 12 percent to 44 percent.
However, according to a survey by the same research group, this support had declined again in March due to the severity of Israel’s retaliation and the level of destruction and loss of life in Gaza.
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According to a poll in the first week of March, support for Hamas fell by almost a quarter to 34 percent, said Khalil Shikaki, director of the center. The movement also lost popularity in the West Bank, where support fell from 44 percent to 35 percent.
“There is no doubt that support for Hamas in Gaza is declining as more and more people feel that it bears some responsibility for the suffering they endure,” Shikaki said.
According to local health authorities, Israel’s Gaza offensive has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians. The vast majority of the population was displaced, sometimes by multiples. Entire families were killed and parts of the strip became uninhabitable wasteland.
According to UN agencies, there is famine and disease in the territory as Israeli restrictions severely limit the import of humanitarian aid. The World Food Program warned this week that famine could officially hit Gaza within six weeks.
Analysts say the absence of Hamas’s powerful internal security forces – which have held back to prevent Israeli attacks – has opened unprecedented space for those willing to vent their frustration with the militant group and its leadership.
Azmi Keshawi, Gaza analyst at the International Crisis Group, said: “Critics have been emboldened because now there is no one to be afraid of.” Hamas fighters are busy with Israel and have no time to deal with the easy ones to deal with people. Their police are also under attack by the Israelis.”
Others argue that the people of Gaza have already suffered so much devastation that they feel they have nothing left to lose by speaking out.
“People are no longer afraid,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political science professor at the now-destroyed Al-Azhar University, who left Gaza late last year. “They have suffered like never before and their situation is so catastrophic that it makes no difference to them. They are already facing death.”
Hamas appears to be aware that Gazans are increasingly blaming it for their predicament. Abusada said he knew of people with large followings on social media who received calls – which he assumed were from the militant group or people affiliated with it – criticizing Hamas and calling on it to stop .
“They told them, ‘You should help raise morale and encourage people,'” he said.
The extent of the devastation in Gaza is such that there is no realistic prospect in the short term for survivors of returning to their homes or resuming normal lives, even if the bombing stops.
Damage to Gaza’s critical infrastructure amounts to $18.5 billion. That’s according to a World Bank report this month, which warned that clearing the estimated 26 million tons of debris from bombed buildings on the other side of the Gaza Strip would take years.
“The role of the resistance is to protect us civilians, not to sacrifice us,” said Samia, another of those displaced in Rafah. “I don’t want to die and I didn’t want my children to witness what they saw and have to live in a tent suffering from hunger, cold and poverty.”
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There is also anger over the disappearance of not only the police but also other elements of Hamas’s state apparatus. This has led to the collapse of civil order and left Gaza’s population, half of whom are children, to fend for themselves in the chaos.
Israel appears to be preparing for a ground offensive on Rafah that would lead to more violence in the city, which humanitarian groups have warned is Gaza’s last refuge from destruction.
“We even have to pay a huge price for the aid that reaches Gaza,” said a resident of Khan Younis named Mohammed. “If we assume that it is not Hamas that is selling it, then what do they do with those who profit? Where are the government and police to ensure citizens’ right to basic food items?”
As an Islamist movement, Hamas has a large ideological following within Gaza’s conservative society. Although not all officials were affiliated with it, the group controlled the government before the war and occupied important positions in the police and civil administration.
At the start of its rule, Hamas tried to impose its strict Islamist mores on society, but in recent years it has abandoned that attempt as it faces increasing criticism at home and from human rights groups around the world.
But even as anger against the group grows, analysts say Hamas can count on core support from about 20 to 25 percent of the population.
“There is a bloc that supports Hamas and the resistance, whatever they do, and they are willing to pay the price,” Keshawi said. “There are others who voted for Hamas in the past, but because they blame them for their current suffering, they are now frustrated with it.”
Despite its declining popularity and the military blows it has received from Israel, analysts believe Hamas will survive – not only because of the ideological support for the group as an Islamist movement, but also because many Palestinians see it as a legitimate resistance to view the Israeli occupation.
For political scientist Abusada, Israel’s goal of eradicating Hamas is unlikely to be achieved even if the group’s capabilities have been weakened and many of its fighters killed.
“There will still be pockets of resistance” in Gaza and support for Hamas, he said, because “people hate the occupation and want to see someone to fight it.”
He continued: “Hamas may be losing popularity in Gaza, but it remains very popular in the West Bank and among Palestinians in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.”