Opposition by Palestinians in Gaza to Hamas is growing, as political space opens from Israeli advances against the Nazi-like Jew-hating group.
At an April 16 march in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza more than 1,000 Palestinians chanted, “Hamas out, out!” “No to terrorism, yes to peace!” “Hamas is garbage!” “Let the world listen — Beit Lahiya is not Hamas!”
In another sign of the deepening opposition to the Tehran-backed thugs, some clan leaders demonstratively joined the march, including some who had previously collaborated with Hamas. Many of the clans are based around capitalist families that were largely pushed aside when Hamas took dictatorial control of Gaza 18 years ago.
Some protesters carried Egyptian flags to show their support for an Egyptian government proposal that Hamas disarm in exchange for Israel ending the war.
Hamas sent a dozen or so of its agents to infiltrate the protest, hoping to use their presence to claim that the action supported them. The mostly masked Hamas operatives carried printed banners that said, “The weapons of the resistance are a red line” and “Beit Lahiya with the resistance.”
When protesters realized who they were, they grabbed the signs, tore them up and chased the Hamas thugs out.
Working people in Gaza are losing their fear of Hamas and pushing back against its use of Palestinian civilians as human shields in its war to destroy Israel. A day or two before the march, a resident of a refuge in a school in northern Gaza told armed Hamas operatives to leave because their presence endangered people’s lives.
The thugs shot and killed him. On April 17 the Families and Clans of the Southern Governorates issued a statement saying that Hamas “bears full responsibility for this cowardly crime.” The clans warned that “we will not stand idly by.”
Since resuming the war against Hamas in mid-March, Israel Defense Forces officials say they have taken control of one-third of Gaza — dividing it in three parts — killed more than 300 Hamas and Islamic Jihad combatants, and made progress in destroying more tunnels and capturing weapons.
Hezbollah’s weakening in Lebanon
Israel’s massive blows to Hezbollah in Lebanon over the last year continue to reverberate. Since its founding in 1982 Hezbollah — created, funded and trained by the reactionary regime in Iran — had become the dominant political and military force in Lebanon, more powerful than the Lebanese army. At the urging of Tehran, Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel “in solidarity” with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, pogrom.
But Israeli counterblows — after Hezbollah refused to stop its assaults — decimated Hezbollah’s leadership, missile stores and thousands of its cadre. This forced Hezbollah to agree to a ceasefire, which also required it to evacuate its forces from southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has since tried to violate the accord.
On April 16 the Lebanese army arrested two people it said had launched rockets toward Israel. The Lebanese government has also been tearing down Hezbollah propaganda billboards in Beirut. This reflects an important shift in the government’s course as it recognizes that if it doesn’t reel in Hezbollah, the Israeli government will.
Danger of a future Holocaust
Yet despite these advances, bourgeois political opponents of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continue to press for Israel to agree to Hamas’ demands to an end to the war in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages — with Hamas still armed and preparing to rebuild and carry out a future Holocaust.
Netanyahu answered those arguments in a video statement April 19. “Since the start of the war, we have heard calls for its conclusion,” he said. “These calls have increased of late.”
They were the same calls made by the Joseph Biden administration, which kept saying that Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023, pogrom by Hamas was “over the top,” at the same time that it claimed to be Israel’s “best friend.” Washington’s calls were echoed by a layer of middle-class officials in the army and the Shin Bet spy agency.
As a capitalist politician, Netanyahu looks to U.S. imperialism to help defend Israel. But he knows that he can’t count on its support and that Israel must be prepared to act alone to defend its existence as a refuge for Jews.
“Were I to have given in to these calls, we would not have entered Rafah. We would not have seized the Philadelphi corridor,” he said. “We would not have created the conditions for the fall of the Assad regime [in Syria] and a harsh blow to the Iranian axis. We would not have changed the face of the Middle East.”
“Leaving the Hamas regime in place in Gaza would be a huge defeat for Israel and a huge victory for Iran,” he said. “If we do not complete the destruction of Hamas’ military and governing capabilities, the next Oct. 7 and the next abductions are only a question of time.”
Hamas and Tehran make no secret of their goal to destroy Israel and rid the Middle East of Jews. Their goal is another Holocaust.
Netanyahu said that Israel will not end the war until “we destroy Hamas in Gaza, return all of our hostages and ensure that the Gaza Strip will never again constitute a threat to Israel.”
That will be a blow to forces carrying out Jew-hating attacks worldwide and aid the Palestinian people who are fighting to get Hamas’ boot off their necks. And it opens the door to working people in Gaza, Israel and throughout the Middle East beginning to see that they have common class interests and can act together on that.