H., a resident of the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, has not visited the Gaza Strip since he was forced to flee abroad several years ago following threats he received from the Hamas authorities. Since the beginning of the war, he has been following with great concern the condition of his family members who are now sheltering in a school in the southern Gaza Strip. "It's hard to contact them on WhatsApp, and every day I think 100 times maybe they're dead, God forbid. Hamas doesn't care about the people in Gaza," he says.
Senior PA officials praise the massacre near the Gaza Strip // Credit: Palestinian Media Watch
"When residents saw what Sanwar had done, they were surprised, and then some people started saying "Abel, crazy" about him. People are very tired of wars, enough, how much is possible? Fed up. We know that Hamas is the one who started this war, what Sanwar did was suicide," H. told Israel Hayom.
I hope that the organization that led Gaza to oblivion will be destroyed
"In the northern part of Gaza, entire neighborhoods and houses were wiped out. My parents and brothers left the house without taking almost anything with them, and hurried to leave. At first they went to the Shetty area, where they stayed with relatives, and then they went down to the south. My 19-year-old brother was injured by shrapnel in the bombings, and now, like everyone else, they're trying not to leave the building they're in, waiting 3 hours to fill up with water, eating what's left, sleeping on the floor, giving the mattresses to the children, and the men sleeping on the protrusions," he says.
Even before the war, he understood that as long as Hamas was in power, there was no chance of living a normal life. "We knew all along that Hamas was stealing Qatari money, taking its own fuel and electricity instead of giving it to people living in Gaza."
Ruins of a house damaged by an IDF airstrike in the Gaza Strip, Photo: AP.
As someone who tried to build his life away from the iron hand and oppression of Hamas, he now hopes that Israel will fully destroy the organization that led Gaza to oblivion.
"The tanks and Israel's military presence inside Gaza and what your army is doing is a great humiliation for Hamas. The movement will no longer remain the same, because even after the war, its members will continue to be wanted and persecuted here or abroad."
However, he explains that there is still a long way to go. "I hope Hamas will end after the war, but don't think it will happen on another day. Over the course of 17 years, they have built a foothold and infrastructure within civil society and the institutions that run people's lives."
Strive for a formula that will deny Hamas a cognitive victory
Alongside the complexity and intensity of the fighting on the ground and the military operations, H. speaks of the need for a long-term plan aimed at destroying the Hamas regime in Gaza.
"It will take many years. There must be a plan whose goal is to strip Hamas of all its governmental powers and capabilities in Gaza, that is, to strip it of all the responsibilities and mechanisms by which it controls civilians. We have to fight his economic resources, so that he won't control the central power plant in Gaza, not the electricity, or anything."
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, after an IDF attack, photo: AP.
"Changing the arrangements at Rafah Crossing is critical," he adds. "There has to be oversight there. If you want to bring the Palestinian Authority and international elements or bring the Europeans back to the Rafah crossing, fine, but the main thing is that Hamas doesn't run it anymore. There was never any control over what came through it, Hamas did what it wanted."
Regarding a possible prisoner exchange deal, he said, one must strive for a formula that would deny Hamas a cognitive victory.
"Of course people would be happy if Palestinian prisoners were released from prisons, but I also hear residents saying: What will all this be worth now after the killing, the war, the loss of life and the tremendous damage caused? Did you sacrifice all of Gaza and destroy it for that? Will the return of a few thousand prisoners compensate for the great price?"
Like H., tens of thousands of young Palestinians emigrated from the Gaza Strip during the two decades of Hamas rule. "We left because we didn't see a future in Gaza, but Gaza never left my heart. My friends and I, who live in Europe, see that there is another war going on and don't want to go back because they tell ourselves there is no hope, no horizon. But if they succeed in destroying Hamas, I will be the first to return. Until we see with our eyes, we won't believe it."
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