By Adam Rasgon
When an Israeli airstrike ripped through a building in central Beit Lahia on Monday night, the farming community in the northernmost part of the Gaza Strip was already on edge over an Israeli evacuation order hours earlier.
The events shook the town’s residents and reminded them of the perils of the war between Israel and Hamas, but they also helped catalyze rare demonstrations against Hamas in Gaza.
For three consecutive days, hundreds of people have marched through the town to demand the end of both the war and Hamas’ 18-year-old rule over Gaza — public protests that have spread to a number of other towns in the battered enclave.
“Hamas needs to go away,” said Ahmad al-Masri, 26, a resident of Beit Lahia who helped call for the demonstrations. “If it doesn’t, the bloodshed, the wars and the destruction won’t stop.”
While most of the demonstrations have been small, they represent the boldest challenge to Hamas’ authority by Palestinians in Gaza since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing war, which has reduced cities to rubble.
They also embody the frustration of Palestinians who are again living through deadly and ear-shattering bombing after Israel and Hamas failed to reach an agreement to extend the ceasefire. They make clear that at least some Palestinians have put aside their fears about potential retribution by Hamas, which has governed Gaza with a heavy hand.
“We don’t have anything to lose,” al-Masri said. “We have already lost our lives, homes and money.”
Before the 2023 attack, Hamas brutally clamped down on Palestinians protesting the miserable living conditions in Gaza and conducted reconnaissance on protest organizers. But during the latest protests, Hamas’ internal security forces have largely refrained from cracking down. That, analysts said, was likely a reflection of both Hamas’ delicate position with Gaza residents and its reduced ability to mobilize forces under the threat of Israeli airstrikes.
“How can it confront this movement? With force? That would cause even greater anger,” noted Akram Atallah, a Palestinian analyst from the northern Gaza town of Jabalia. Fearful that Israel could try to kill security officers, Hamas may not be able to deploy them, he added.
But Thursday, Hamas operatives wielding batons barred media coverage of the demonstration in Beit Lahia. The protest, which included hundreds of people, still went ahead.
Hamas still has a base of supporters in Gaza. Some of them have remained quiet as protests have taken place this week, while others have tried to cast doubt on social media about the motives behind the protests, alleging they were serving foreign agendas, without providing credible proof.
The first protest took place in Beit Lahia around 4 p.m. Tuesday. The night before, community members sent around a message calling on residents to take to the streets.
“The square is calling on you,” said a screenshot of the message, shared with The New York Times. “Enough of wars. We want to live in peace.”
The message came shortly after Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-language spokesperson of the Israeli military, posted an order for people to evacuate from Beit Lahia on his social media accounts. Not long after, an airstrike pounded into the town, residents said.
Asked about the strike, the Israeli military said it was operating against Hamas’ military capabilities, without addressing the specific case. Israeli has accused Hamas of operating within civilian areas in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack.
In interviews, protesters said they hoped Hamas would give up its control over Gaza and remove any reason for Israel to continue to carry out attacks, forcing an end to the war.
“We can’t accept that all of us should die for them to stay in power,” said Sharif al-Buheisi, 56, a resident of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza who participated in a protest Wednesday. Al-Buheisi is an activist in Fatah, a rival group of Hamas, and served as an administrator at Al-Azhar University in Gaza City before the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel would not end the war until Hamas’ military wing and government were dismantled, while Hamas has expressed willingness to give up control only of civilian government, not its arms.
For al-Buheisi, an important element of the protests was to push back on the idea — one held by some Israelis — that all of Gaza supported Hamas and terrorism.
“We’re affirming that we are a people that love life and our children,” he said.
The protests included the participation of mukhtars, local leaders in towns and villages who hold sway with large parts of their communities, demonstrators said. Before the first march in Beit Lahia, a number of young people approached mukhtars to secure support for the initiative, according to al-Masri and Hassan Saad, another resident of the town. They offered their blessings.
“We’re saying we want to live in dignity,” said Hisham al-Birawi, 64, a mukhtar in Beit Lahia. “We want to live like anyone else.”
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