People in Gaza protest against Hamas: “We are hungry”

The mutton from Saudi Arabia would be emergency aid to hungry Palestinians in Rafah.

Instead, the food was sold on the market, reports Sweden’s Radio Ekot.

Now there are protests in Gaza against the ruling Hamas.

Severe hunger prevails in Gaza.

Several aid organizations have warned that very little emergency aid is entering the territory since Israel tightened its blockade following Hamas attacks on the country on October 7.

But when an aid delivery of mutton from Saudi Arabia arrived in the refugee city of Rafah on Tuesday, the food was not distributed to hungry refugees.

Instead, it was sold on the market, reports Sweden’s Radio Ekot.

Then a spontaneous protest broke out.

– We are hungry, we can’t stand it! People eat animal feed! You should be ashamed, may God punish you, Hamas, seven-year-old boy Abdel Rahman shouted in despair at the protest, according to the radio.

More and more such smaller protests have arisen in various places in Gaza during the nearly five-month-long war.

Last Wednesday, there were new protests in the refugee city of Rafah against high food prices and a lack of emergency aid, according to the AFP news agency.

Many of the protesters target Israel and the outside world – but some turn their anger towards Hamas, which rules Gaza.

Israeli Ynet reports about a video said to have been recorded in the largest permanent refugee camp Jabalia in northern Gaza a week ago. In the clip, an upset man can be seen saying, among other things:

– These are hungry people, people with sick children. Broken people, people who sleep among sewers, who endure extremely hard lives, who find no rest day or night.

Gunfire is heard in the background.

– Hamas shoots at the starving, at people in their own homes. Isn’t that terrible? We did not seek this war. We seek peace, we want our children to go to school.

Criticizing the terror-labeled group can be dangerous. Sveriges Radio states that local journalists are afraid of being branded as pro-Israeli traitors if they report on the protests. Despite this, videos and interviews are spread on social media.

On the messaging app Telegram, there is the account “Gazas fria”, which shares information about various protests and often singles out Hamas as responsible for the war in which Gazans are now victims. Specific Hamas stops are also criticized.

But the protesters do not represent the whole picture of Gaza.

In December showed an opinion poll that support for Hamas remains strong in Gaza and growing in the West Bank, where the Fatah party rules.

57 percent of respondents in Gaza and 82 percent of respondents in the West Bank also said they believed Hamas was right to carry out the October 7 attacks on Israel.

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