“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 “that I’m a human being here in Gaza — not a beast, a terrorist, or a lover of weapons — because in the end, weapons won’t get us anywhere.”

Hamas rhetoric calls for Gazans to serve as cannon fodder. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar memorably told Palestinians, “Everybody who has a gun should take it, and those who don’t have a gun should take a butcher’s knife, axe or any knife they can get… from satellites, the entire region should be seen engulfed in fire.”

Last month, the head of the Hamas Women’s Movement gave an interview describing the culture of “martyrdom-seekers” that Hamas fosters, in which “a girl sets out only one thing on her mind — to meet her Lord by means of her blood and body parts.” She added that “most kindergartens [in Gaza] belong to our sisters in Hamas. Children are raised from a young age on this culture … From infancy, children are nurtured to love jihad, to want to meet Allah.”

The many Gazans who oppose this worldview are forbidden to say so. Any attempt at civil peacemaking is met with harsh repression. In 2020, when a group of Gazan peace activists held a Zoom meeting with Israeli counterparts, several were arrested, beaten, and charged with “betrayal.” Unsurprisingly, as one young Gazan woman told NPR, “most Gazans have stopped believing in Hamas and the others… they don’t feed us, they don’t provide anything. How can we build a future with these guys?” Ali El-Jeredly, an unemployed 28-year old Gazan, put it more directly: “I want work more than rockets.”