“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 Hamas leadership has left Gaza,” he observes, “living in Turkey or Qatar, and building a better future for themselves and their children.” Let those who want to “break the blockade… come to Gaza and truly liberate it,” he says — by building a civil society.

The gulf in living standards between Hamas leaders and ordinary Gazans has grown increasingly conspicuous in recent years. In 2019, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh moved to Qatar with his family, while the group’s deputy leader Khalil al-Hayya relocated to Turkey soon after. Since then he has visited Gaza only twice. Fat’hi Hamad, another senior Hamas official, now also resides in Istanbul, often flying to Beirut for meetings in luxury hotels. More than a dozen other high-ranking Hamas officials have followed suit. This exodus has not gone unnoticed. According to Azmi Keshawi, Gaza analyst at the International Crisis Group, “Ordinary Palestinians see that Hamas… [is] living in these comfortable zones where they are no longer suffering and seem far from the Palestinian cause and issues.”

Gazans have ample cause for frustration. In the years since Hamas took power, Gaza’s GDP growth has averaged one percent per year, one sixth the rate of growth in the West Bank. In periods of relative calm, such as 1997-1999 and 2003-2005, Gaza enjoyed growth rates as high as 17 percent per year. One study concluded that were Gaza’s rulers to adopt a conciliatory posture toward their neighbors, the territory’s GDP would skyrocket by 40 percent; household purchasing power by 55 percent; and exports by 625 percent. In today’s bleak conditions, by contrast, young Gazans see their best chance for a decent life in fleeing to somewhere else. One woman whose son died trying to leave the coastal Strip by sea said, “I blame the rulers here, the government of Gaza… They live in luxury while our children eat dirt, migrate, and die abroad.”