Another demonstrator, “Walid,” describes being jailed by Hamas seven times. Before the protests, “I was a young dreamer, dreaming about change,” he recalls. “I hadn’t imagined that they would brand us as traitors … we meant no harm to anyone, after all.” What changed his life, he says, was the experience of looking his torturers in the eyes.

Though Hamas claims to respect Palestinians’ right to free expression, its behavior shows otherwise. In addition to firing into crowds, raiding houses, and arresting over 1,000 demonstrators, Hamas abused untold numbers in custody. Nineteen-year-old Amir Abu Oun, for example, “was detained and held for five days, during which he said he was slapped, beaten and deprived of food.

Part of the Hamas response to the 2019 demonstrations was to work systematically to brand protesters as traitors. In 2019, pro-Hamas media outlets, both within the strip and in other Arab countries, were enlisted to tar Gazan protesters as “collaborators” with Israeli security forces. One Hamas security official claimed, “These protests are driven by foreign parties and these parties are seeking to destabilize the Gaza Strip.”

As pro-Hamas media from various Arab countries echo these talking points, they reinforce the feeling within Gaza that many in the region confuse support for Hamas and support for the Palestinians who live under Hamas control.