Hamas dismisses Gaza protests as ‘serving foreign interests’ as unrest enters third day
Palestinian protests against Hamas in northern Gaza entered their third day while Israeli forces encircled a Rafah neighbourhood in the southern part of the Strip on Thursday.
In the terror group’s first official response to the demonstrations, Hamas official Basem Naim told the Qatari channel Al-Araby that “demonstrations are expected from people facing extermination, against war and destruction” and claimed the Palestinians were protesting against Israel.
“People are calling to stop the aggression, but the enemy and other parties with political agendas are diverting the spontaneous protests to serve the occupation’s agenda and trying to portray it as if the demonstrators are against the resistance,” Naim said.
He claimed that people characterizing the protests as against Hamas “serve [foreign] interests.”
Palestinians have been demonstrating in Beit Lahiya, Shejaya and Jabaliya calling for an end to the war and demanding that Hamas relinquish control of Gaza. Protesters chanted “Hamas out” and held signs reading “Stop the war” and “We want to live in peace.”
Others were heard saying that Hamas was “hiding among the youth, and we are the ones suffering.”
Meanwhile, in southern Gaza, Israeli soldiers encircling Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighbourhood eliminated dozens of terrorists, the Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday.
Troops found shells inside a Hamas facility that previously functioned as the Al-Fadalallah school and a 25-cell rocket launcher in a nearby area.
Surprise Israeli airstrikes on March 18 ended a two-month ceasefire with Hamas after the Iran-backed terror group rejected U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff’s proposal to extend the ceasefire’s first phase in exchange for the release of five hostages.
Although talks over phase two of the agreement, set to begin February 3, never took place, the ceasefire held for weeks as mediators sought new terms.
At least 1,180 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 59 remaining hostages, 36 are believed to be dead.
