By the 100th day of Israel's offensive in Gaza, Abu Ahmad Al-Gharabli and his 13 relatives had been displaced four times before settling in Rafah, on the southern edge of the besieged enclave.
Forced to sell cigarettes on the street to survive, the 56-year-old blacksmith is angry. Because of his inability to provide food and shelter for his family. Because of the little humanitarian aid he has received.
And, above all, in Hamas.
“Before their launch on October 7, they should have gotten food, drink and money so that we would not suffer like this,” Al-Gharabli said of the militant group's attack on Israel that sparked the war.
Doctors treat a girl injured in the Israeli bombing of Gaza.
(Ramez Habboub / Associated Press)
“It seems that Hamas did not consider the consequences,” added Al-Gharabli's wife, Umm Ahmad, who, like most people interviewed for this article, only gave her nickname for security reasons. “They think they planned everything, but when it comes to us, they didn't. Poverty, displacement… all this that Hamas did not think about.”
More than three months after the most devastating assault Gaza has ever experienced, many residents – 85% of whom are displaced and almost all at risk of starvation – are increasingly exasperated with Hamas in the midst of a war that He has not left anyone in the enclave. unaffected.
Although most of the 2.3 million inhabitants consider Israel primarily responsible for their suffering, and Hamas retains the support of a significant part of society, many Gazans feel caught between loyalty to the resistance against the occupation Israeli seizure of Palestinian lands and a war strategy by its militant rulers that seemed to ignore them.
“Any organization or state planning a military attack should have a feasibility study, so to speak,” said Abu Tawfiq, 35, speaking with the clear diction of the broadcaster he was before the war. “We have started to ask: 'You embark on a military adventure, did you fortify the home front?' 'Did they prepare the simplest means of life for the citizens of Gaza?'”
On October 7, when Hamas commandos killed at least 1,200 people and kidnapped about 240 more, according to Israeli authorities, most Gazans celebrated, Abu Tawfiq said, seeing it as a moment of struggle against Israel and its long siege of the coastal strip.
People search for survivors in the rubble of a mosque destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip.
(Hatem Ali / Associated Press)
But since then “it has been a nightmare from which we cannot wake up,” Abu Tawfiq said. “They were angry. And the fact that Hamas neglects citizens is compounding that anger.”
Examples of such negligence abound, he said. Since Israel restricted the number of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip, a price increase was to be expected, which is why, in past clashes with Israel, Hamas officials or police were in the markets. penalizing offending merchants. This time, with Israeli drones and armored vehicles a constant threat, Hamas authorities barely have a presence on the streets, and are also ineffective.
Sugar, at almost $3 a pound, costs seven times more than before the war; onions, 13 times; canned goods, six times. Diapers for Al-Gharabli's two grandchildren went up to a staggering $38 a package, and he has to walk two miles to find them.
“There is no supervision. You just don't get the feeling that there is a government,” said Abu Amir Tafesh, 42, who was looking for bottled water for his family.
Some say the problems also affect the distribution of the few supplies reaching Gaza. During other wars, aid organizations linked to Hamas or Islamic Jihad, another militant group, delivered packages or cash not only to their members but also to their supporters. That's not going to happen this time.
“Even if you are sitting inside the mosque, you get nothing,” Abu Tawfiq said.
The sense of abandonment by Hamas is exacerbated, many say, by the fact that the only benefit of the October 7 operation has been to the occupied West Bank, where hundreds of imprisoned Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons in November during a week-long truce in Gaza.
“All the martyrs, the destroyed houses, the fear… we are paying the price,” Tafesh said.
He is glad that the Palestinian detainees have been released. But with more than 26,000 people killed by Israeli bombing, entire families wiped out and much of the enclave destroyed, Gaza as he knew it is gone.
“People want a way to live with dignity. That’s it,” Tafesh said. “Now they are silent because they are too aggrieved. Even if they wanted to shout at the government, what good would it do them?”
Israeli forces approach the border with the Gaza Strip on January 25, 2024.
(Ohad Zwigenberg/Associated Press)
With little idea of the end of Hamas, many Palestinians are divided over what has happened since October 7. A December poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (involving 1,231 respondents, including 480 in Gaza) showed that 37% of Gazans labeled Hamas's decision to attack “wrong,” given the consequences so far.
Most Palestinians also say that the killing of civilians is not permitted, but they do not believe the Israeli government's accusations or evidence of atrocities committed by Hamas.
“If October 7 had not happened, we would have remained humiliated, under the mercy of the occupation all our lives,” said Umm Mahmoud Zreik, 57. “For us the exchange of hostages is not a great achievement. “We need them to do more, like breaking the siege.”
Perhaps in response to such sentiments, Hamas on Sunday issued its first public report on its multi-pronged cross-border attack, a 16-page document titled “Our Narrative,” in which it cited a list of reasons for its attack, including the decision of the Israeli government. right-wing policies, the expansion of illegal settlements, the increase in Palestinian detainees and the failure of negotiations on a Palestinian state.
The report also insists that although “some failures may have occurred” during the “rapid collapse of the Israeli military and security system” during the assault and the “chaos caused along the border areas with Gaza,” the fighters of Hamas did not intentionally attack civilians.
About 60% of the Israelis killed on October 7 were civilians. Israel accuses Hamas of senseless killings and says it has collected extensive visual evidence and witness testimony that militants engaged in torture and sexual violence against civilian victims. Hamas blames Israel, pointing to reports in Israeli media that the army was responsible for killing several civilians during the clash with the group's fighters.
Palestinians injured in Israel's continuing offensive in Gaza await treatment at a hospital in Rafah.
(Fatima Shbair / Associated Press)
Although there are growing signs of disillusionment in Gaza with Hamas, which has ruled the strip since 2007, it can still count on a loyal base. The December poll found that support for the group increased slightly, to 42% from 38% in Gaza; in the West Bank, it almost quadrupled to 44%.
Inside Gaza, researcher Abdalhadi Alijla sees two trends at play: skepticism toward Hamas amid minimal improvements in life after 17 years of its rule and no measures to ease the situation. the isolation of the enclave, but also the increasingly dominant belief among Palestinians that armed struggle is the only way to end the Israeli occupation.
“The consensus in Gaza is that resistance is a red line, which will remain, with or without Hamas,” Alijla said, adding that Hamas has never resolved whether it is a ruling authority capable of providing order, stability and employment or a liberation movement. .
“Hamas's popularity is greater in the West Bank than in Gaza because Gazans got a taste of their rule. They know it,” Alijla said.
Hamas maintains that the main objective of its October 7 raid was to kidnap Israeli soldiers to force a prisoner exchange. But his report makes clear that another goal was to refocus world attention on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The report repeatedly criticizes Israel's allies and the United Nations for ignoring the plight of the Palestinians.
As the war continues and the question of who will govern Gaza becomes more urgent, the anger of some Gazans against Hamas has not translated into greater support for the rival Palestinian Authority, the much-maligned administration that exercises limited control. over the West Bank and was violently expelled from the Gaza Strip by Hamas in 2007.
“The authority does not have the trust of the people. Even his own officials do not trust him,” Alijla said.
Newsletter
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California to get the LA Times' top news, features and recommendations delivered to your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
Whatever alternative emerges, said Umm Ahmad, wife of blacksmith Al-Gharabli, the priority should be providing stability for civilians.
“This living on the streets, this famine, our children getting sick or injured with nowhere to receive treatment, I for one will not accept it,” he said. “I need a government that takes care of its people.”
The Times' special correspondent in Gaza cannot be identified for security reasons. Editor Bulos reported from Beirut.
