“I took part to send a message on behalf of the people: Enough with the war,” one man told Agence France-Press, adding that he had seen “members of the Hamas security forces in civilian clothing breaking up the protest”.
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Demonstrators shouted ‘Hamas out’ and carried banners saying ‘we want to live in peace’ as hundreds of Palestinians protested against Hamas in northern Gaza.
Majdi, another protester who did not wish to give his full name, said the “people are tired”.
“If Hamas leaving power in Gaza is the solution, why doesn’t Hamas give up power to protect the people?” he told AFP.
The protest comes after Israel resumed bombing Gaza after a nearly two-month truce, increasing the death toll of its military offensive to more than 50,000, the Gaza’s health ministry said.
Many of the slogans chanted on Tuesday evoked the Bidna N’eesh (‘We Want to Live’) movement, which emerged during the 2019 Gaza economic protests. Those protests were violently suppressed by Hamas, which said they were orchestrated by its rival, Fatah.
The Gaza Strip has been devastated by more than 17 months of war between Israel and Hamas, with the humanitarian situation again deteriorating after Israel blocked the passage of aid into the territory on 2 March in an attempt to force the militants to release Israeli hostages.
Since Israel resumed its military operations in Gaza, at least 792 Palestinians have been killed, according to the health ministry.
The war was sparked by the militant group’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 50,021 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry.
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