Hamas is a far-right Palestinian movement that has exploited religion and the slogan of resistance to seize power. Hamas adopts a suicidal approach, sacrificing Palestinians for its own survival. The suicide attacks that began in the 1990s contributed to the collapse of the Oslo Accords, which aimed to find a solution for the Palestinian people to obtain some of their rights. This emboldened the far right on both sides in Palestine and Israel, enabling them to seize power.

By Rewaa Alkhozondar
Hamas has made manipulation and the use of accusations of treason a method of controlling the people of the Gaza Strip and targeting voices that advocate for life and oppose the movement's terrorist policies. From Hamas's perspective, silencing dissent by any means is a way to impose security and tighten its military grip on the civilian population in the Strip.

Hamas constantly seeks wars, which bolster its media influence in the Arab and Islamic world. It resorts to war to increase its bank accounts, even when Qatar called for "calm" during Al-Emadi's visits with suitcases of Qatari money to support it, and despite his statements "urging calm".

At that time, Hamas used the "March of Return" protests, transporting young men, children, and women in buses to the Gaza border to confront the armed Israeli army with unarmed civilians. Hamas always exploits Palestinian bloodshed to portray Israel as brutal. Many Gazans believe that Palestinians are well aware of Israel's capacity for violent retaliation, yet Hamas always initiates attacks and then complains about Israeli brutality.

Palestinians have come to see their suffering as futile, serving only the political propaganda of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, who exploit Palestinian blood to boost their popularity in the Arab and Islamic world, and even globally, thus generating substantial funds from foreign donations.

When Palestinians lost their lives, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict devolved into a matter of death. With the anticipation of death in the Gaza Strip, thousands of Palestinians took to the streets in 2024, demanding that Hamas step down and leave the negotiations and the fate of Gaza to Arab parties and the Palestinian Authority.

But Hamas did not remain silent and launched campaigns accusing these movements of treason. Hamas possesses a massive media apparatus, funded with millions of dollars, which it manages from different locations outside the Gaza Strip around the world. It seeks to control public opinion by employing networks that support its rhetoric and actions.

These networks target the reputations of dissenting Gazans, with the ever-present accusation that the opponent is affiliated with Unit 8200 of the Israeli army. They also resort to accusing opponents of moral offences, targeting not the individual but the entire family if they are outside Gaza. This serves as a pressure tactic initially, as a first step, and a pretext for targeting the family within Gaza if the dissident abroad does not remain silent.

There are numerous examples, and we do not wish to mention names because the list is long, and doing so would endanger families in the Gaza Strip. Hamas controls Gaza's hospitals and uses some chambers for interrogation and torture. They also use special tents for torture among displaced people to intimidate Gazans from expressing dissenting opinions.

Hamas uses force to kill opponents in front of their families, children, and the public to silence the people of Gaza. They killed activist Ziad Abu Hayya in his tent in front of his children because of a cry he made during his repeated displacement: "Save us from Hamas before the Jews!" Every time he tried to find respite from the constant displacement, Hamas operatives would fire indiscriminate rockets near them into Israel, after which Israel would issue evacuation orders.

They also killed twelve young men, the oldest being 25, who worked with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), unloading aid boxes from trucks and delivering them to distribution points.

Not content with killing many young men under the pretext of them being Israeli spies, they targeted a Palestinian woman named Islam Hijazi, shooting her thirty times as she drove her car. This occurred after they contacted her to try to seize control of the organisation where she worked.

After public outcry, they claimed her killing was a mistake, alleging her car was mistaken for that of a wanted individual. For two decades, the Palestinian street in the Gaza Strip has suffered from campaigns of murder, defamation, and accusations against any dissenting voice. No child, woman, young man, or elderly person has been spared from their policies.

Hamas has sealed its history of crimes against us with the October 7th massacre, which the people of Gaza see as a death sentence against an entire population: a suicidal decision, a gamble with people's lives, souls, and resources.

The people are trying to speak out against this terrorist movement, yet Hamas continues to use its repressive policies to silence the voices of Gaza's residents. But throughout history, movements, no matter how powerful, eventually fall, while the people endure and do not perish.

Rewaa Alkhozondar is a Palestinian from Gaza and a writer on political and social issues. She has lived in both Congo and Ethiopia, experiences that have further shaped her global perspective. Rewaa is a strong advocate for women's issues and actively supports Palestinian women in challenging patriarchal mindsets within society. Her first contribution to The Liberum can be read here.