The Times of Israel March 28, 2025
Gaza war’s first major anti-Hamas protests may not oust it, but are weakening its hold

For now, Hamas has chosen not to brutally suppress the rallies.
That may change, but it also knows the world is watching, and its gunmen know Israeli drones are flying overhead.

For nearly two days, Hamas maintained public silence regarding the protests, neither addressing them nor violently suppressing them.

This contrasted with 2019 when Hamas police quickly crushed an eruption of protest.

Dr. Harel Chorev, a senior researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, believes that the roots of the protest precede the war triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 invasion and massacre:

“At least some of this resistance to Hamas’s rule has been brewing for more than a year and a half — that is, even before the war.
But the war triggered it, because of the destruction it has caused.

The last straw was this month’s resumption of the fighting.
Gazans thought they were finally done with it, only to be bombed and displaced again. It’s tremendously demoralizing.”

Chorev saw preliminary signs of the unrest online:
“Two weeks ago, when this round of fighting began, some Gazans posted strong criticism of Hamas on social media:
‘We’re sick of you; you’ve destroyed Gaza; you’re a bunch of murderers.’

These are the same messages that have now featured [on placards and in chants] at the protests.
What started online has spilled into the streets.”