Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has a price on his head. A widow in Gaza explains why she'd be happy to "deliver it for free."
"Their leaders were served meat and rice while we couldn’t find food to eat." A former member of Hamas on who benefits from humanitarian aid in Gaza.
"[Hamas] is driving around in jeeps, shooting in the air, beating up merchants … and where are those trucks [of aid]?" Life under ceasefire, according to a Gazan in Rafah.
A Gazan patient reports, “Every Palestinian knows Shifa Hospital is full of Qassam fighters, but nobody can talk.”
While some diaspora Palestinians cheer Hamas on social media, Gazans inside the Strip respond: "Of the last two decades of Hamas rule, they know absolutely nothing."
As Western protesters demand an Israel-Hamas ceasefire, a Gazan woman asks them to make a crucial choice.
As Hamas hides among civilians in Jabaliya camp, Gazans organize to avoid being used as human shields.
Hamas says Gazans are "ready to die for the resistance." A Palestinian civilian begs to differ.
Do Gazans think Hamas should rule Hamas when the war ends? One civilian says it's barely running Gaza now. "We don't see anyone - not even the police."
Do Gazans support an Israeli campaign to end Hamas rule?
One civilian replies, "The Jews didn't kill my brother; Hamas did."
A Gazan woman reacts to the October 7 massacre: “When I saw what happened, I was ver angry.”
A blast near a Gaza hospital triggers an international blame game — but Gazans ask, "Who made us go to the hospital in the first place?"
Asked what happens to international aid once it enters Gaza, Palestinians explain, "It’s distributed in a partisan way: only Hamas members get the aid."
“Back in the days of the first and second Intifadas, we used to believe in something called resistance,” says “Othman.” “But today, the ‘resistance’ has become a business.” Every tobacco stand and coffee shop is forced to pay Hamas protection money“…
Everywhere “Iyad” turns in Gaza, he finds Hamas’s leaders looking back at him. Their portraits and slogans cover the walls and alleys. “Is this a city, or a military barracks?” he asks. When his fellow Gazans declare themselves “ready for martyrdom,”…
“Fatima’s” brother used to work as a street vendor, selling vegetables his mother grew. But Hamas police in Gaza would confiscate his wares, demanding bribes to let him work and threatening him with jail, beatings, and worse.
When Hamas police came to cut off power to “Ahmed”’s home, his cousin, a child with Down syndrome, tried to stop them. They beat him and fired live ammunition at his house. After “Ahmed” uploaded footage of the incident to social media, the clip went viral. He spent the next three days on the run from Hamas authorities.
“Mariam,” a professional Dabke dancer, believes in the power of art to improve the world. But after Hamas gained control of Gaza in 2007, they told her to stop dancing and study Qur’an instead. When she refused, they began to threaten her family.
Billions in foreign aid have poured into Gaza. But as far as “Isma’il” is concerned, the sea might as well have swallowed it. Gaza is like the Bermuda Triangle, he says — everything that enters, disappears.
“Maha” once aspired to be a journalist in her native Gaza, but no longer tries. First her Facebook page was taken down. Then Hamas told her, “If you don’t stop, something bad might happen to your family.”
“Basma,” a licensed pharmacist in Gaza, was repeatedly harassed by Hamas over her affiliation with Fatah. After she opened her own pharmacy, Hamas priced her out of the market, forcing her to shut it down.
“There’s nepotism in everything here,” according to “Ashraf.” On the one hand, for example, you need friends in the Hamas-run electric company to get a break on your bill. You’ll be taxed exorbitantly otherwise — especially if you happen to be…
A further source of anguish is shared by parents like “Amna,” who wants her children to have a decent education, “to think rationally… and live a modern life.” She fears sending them to Ha-mas-run schools for this reason — “because that’s where…
Gazans’ suffering under Hamas is compounded, says “Yasmin,” by the feeling that Arabs across the region do not understand what life under Hamas rule is really like. “A lot of the [Arab] media outlets are working for Hamas,” she explains. “They…
In 2019, approximately 1,000 Gazans waged street demonstrations under the banner “We Want to Live.” “Rana” was one of them. “The people wanted its voice to be heard by the government,” she explains. “But as I’m sure you saw, Hamas responded with the…
Amid the pressures of life in Gaza, many crave an outlet to air and manage their feelings. So “Layla” opened a counseling center in her house, tending to the emotional needs of women and children. “Solving their problems made me happy,” she says…
Another demonstrator, “Walid,” describes being jailed by Hamas seven times. Before the pro-tests, “I was a young dreamer, dreaming about change,” he recalls. “I hadn’t imagined that they would brand us as traitors …
“Safa,” a Gazan photojournalist, tried to support the 2019 demonstrations by providing cover-age to international outlets. Police smashed her camera and her hand, jailed and tortured her family members, and even threatened her relatives abroad that…
Part of what stokes Gazans’ bitterness, according to “Hisham,” is the ostentatious behavior of Hamas leaders. “Nowadays, it’s not an occupier who is killing me,” he says, but rather Hamas, which imposes crushing taxes, leaving Gazans in abject poverty…
For the majority of Gazans who do not openly censure Hamas, there is no guarantee that Ha-mas will not censure them. At a certain coffeehouse in Gaza, “Lubna” and her boyfriend used to hold hands – until Hamas police noticed their behavior, reported…
“Samir’s” brother once served in the PA security forces in Gaza. When Hamas conquered the Strip in 2007, he was among the wounded. His friends rushed him to the emergency room, only for Hamas security forces to shut off the power, forbidding docto…
Majed” recalls how the Gaza border protests of 2018-2019 began. “It started with peaceful protest camps,” he says, “but Hamas decided to exploit them.” Gazans were told that they would “break the blockade” if they marched on the border, he remembers...
“Bassam” would like the world to know that in the 2019 street demonstrations, he and his fellow protesters wanted nothing more than “a government that knows how to run the country.” As proud Palestinian nationalists, they did not expect that Hamas…
“Khalil’s” grandparents raised him on stories of a better time. In their generation, “we used to attend [Israelis’] celebrations, and they would come to ours.” Palestinians were free to travel from Gaza to Jaffa or Jerusalem, and work alongside Israelis…
“Zainab” would like the world to know that “there’s a false stereotype that Palestinians in Gaza love rockets and wars.” While pro-Hamas media works to “instill a thirst for blood” in the youth, her struggle is to tell Israelis and Palestinians alike…
In recent years, observes Fadi, Gazans have discovered that “the Palestine which Hamas wants to liberate is not the same Palestine which we as Palestinians were expelled from. … There is now an entire people there — and that, a people, and Israel…
“Zainab” wants the world to know that she dreams of a Gaza without war and free from religious coercion, where “everyone can find income and a livelihood.” In this new place, “women are free to remove the hijab or to wear it.” It is a Gaza “open…
“Ibrahim” has a vision of a thriving, developing Gaza, at peace with Israel and itself. He wants the world to know that Palestinians free of Hamas domination can build such a place themselves, given a modicum of outside assistance. “Most of the…
ندوة المجلس العربي حول قضايا المرأة العراقية — Arab Council Panel on Iraqi Women's Issues
