It seems that the real video shows that hundreds of people participated in a protest in the northern northern town of Beit Lahiya on Tuesday. People hold signs that “stop the war,” “we refuse to die,” and “our children’s blood is not cheap.”
There were more calls for protests on Wednesday. At least one was held in the tough Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City, and dozens of men shouted, “Go out! Hamas gets out!”
“We hate bombing, killing and displacement,” Ammar Hassan said, who attended the protest on Tuesday.
He said it was initially an anti-war protest, with dozens of people, but it swelled to more than 2,000, and people shouted Hamas.
“This is the only party we can influence,” he said via phone. “Protests will not stop (Israel) occupation, but will affect Hamas.” Militant groups have hit hard on previous protests. There was no obvious intervention this time, perhaps because Hamas has remained low since Israel resumed its war. Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official, wrote in a Facebook post that people have the right to protest, but their focus should be on Israel’s “crime aggressors.”
Beit Lahiya, a family elder who “we want to stop the murder”, expressed support in protest of Israel’s renewed attack and strengthened the blockade of all supplies in Gaza. Their statement said the community fully supports armed resistance to Israel.
Mohammed Abu Saker said: “Protest has nothing to do with politics. It has something to do with people’s lives.
“We want to stop killing and displacement regardless of the price. We can’t stop Israel from killing us, but we can urge Hamas to give concessions,” he said.
Witnesses said similar protests occurred on Tuesday in severely destroyed areas in Jabaliya.
A protester in Jabaliya spoke in anonymity for fear of retribution, saying they joined the demonstration because “everyone failed us”.
They said they chanted to Israel, Hamas, Western-backed Palestinian authorities and Arab mediators. They said there were no Hamas security forces in the protests, but a melee broke out between supporters and opponents.
Later, they said they regretted participating in the competition due to Israeli media reports, which emphasized opposition to Hamas.
A 19-year-old Palestinian also spoke for anonymity, as he feared retribution, plans to attend the demonstration on Wednesday. His mother has cancer and his 10-year-old brother has cerebral palsy, and he says the family has been displaced since their house was destroyed.
“People are angry with the whole world, including the United States, Israel and Hamas. “We want Hamas to resolve this situation, return to the hostages and end the whole thing. ”
A week after a strike in Israel caused a surprise wave of hundreds, the renewed battle brought more deaths and displacement. Earlier this month, Israel stopped providing food, fuel, medical and humanitarian assistance to approximately two million Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel vowed to escalate the war until Hamas returned to the 59 hostages it still held – 24 of them believed to be alive. Israel also asked the group to give up power, disarm and exile its leaders.
Hamas said it would only release the remaining captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and Israel’s evacuation from Gaza.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, where Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and were kidnapped.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, Israel’s retaliatory offensive killed more than 50,000 people, not to say how many civilians or combatants were. Israel’s bombing and ground operations have caused great damage and are displaced by 90% of Gaza’s population.
Hamas won a landslide in the last Palestinian election held in 2006. The following year, after factional turmoil and a week of heavy street struggles, it seized the Western-backed Palestinian authority with Western-backed Palestinian power.
Rights groups say both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have violently suppressed dissent, eliminating protests in areas where they control, imprison and torture critics.
