A new campaign calling for rallies in the Gaza Strip later this month has gained momentum in recent days. Launched under the banner of the June 26 Revolution, the campaign seeks to protest Hamas rule and the current political, social, and humanitarian reality facing Palestinians in the Strip.
The initiative – which appears to have been organized by a group of Palestinian activists, exiled social media influencers, and journalists, mostly from Gaza – highlights the need for change and calls on Gazans to take to the streets.
“The people of Gaza need to rebuild their lives. The suffering has to stop,” Gazan journalist Abed al-Hamid Abed al-Ati, one of the prominent figures pushing the June protests, told The Jerusalem Post.
Ati said the aim is to give hope to Gazans and show them a path to dignity and a normal life, away from ongoing displacement and daily struggles.
“We are not asking much; we just want to live like any other human beings,” he said. Ati is known for criticizing the political and living conditions in the Strip.
“I see my role as helping Gaza residents because no one else is stepping in. People have been displaced and left in tents, and they’re just not seeing, at least for now, any real signs on the ground that their lives are about to significantly change and get better soon,” he explained. “We reject the continuation of this war. It needs to end.”
Activists call on Gazan civilians to protest against Hamas
The June 26 Revolution movement has released several statements. One reads: “The people are the source of authority. They are the ones who have paid the price with their homes, future, sons, and daughters. From this painful reality, the people declare their revolution as a renewed expression of their independent will, rejecting oppression and the continued occupation of the Gaza Strip.
“The people have the right to proclaim their lives and reject surrendering to reality imposed upon them. We refuse to have our dignity violated or to be humiliated by standing in bread lines. We reject reducing our lives to living in a tent and waiting for water.”
The call for popular protest has begun to draw attention among Palestinians, with some expressing solidarity with the campaign’s goals and implicitly criticizing Hamas’s rule.
“We are thrown away in the streets. Wake up! For God’s sake, what are you waiting for?” a young Palestinian man said about the movement’s initiative.
Another Palestinian who spoke out against the terror organization asserted that “Hamas is finished” and urged Gaza residents to join the protests set for the end of June.
“Don’t be afraid. Demonstrate for the sake of your children and the dignity that was taken away from you. Free yourselves from slavery and injustice.”
Another statement released by the June 26 campaign read: “Our revolution does not await promises from anyone. The people are the ones required to act. We affirm our commitment to the peaceful nature of our revolution, and we call on local, international, legal, and media institutions to provide support and protect the protesters on June 26.”
However, the call for popular protest against Hamas rule has sparked controversy, as some accuse campaign members of “betrayal and collusion with the Zionist entity” due to their criticism of the “resistance.”
Ati has also come under attack by Hamas affiliates who have portrayed him and his colleagues as “traitors and collaborators with Israel” who seek to “fuel anarchy.”
Yesterday, Ati announced his withdrawal from the protest campaign. Palestinian sources in Gaza said it followed death threats made against his family because of his activities.
However, shortly after, he reversed his decision, explaining that his return came in response to the will of the people, who rejected his stepping back and insisted on the importance of this vital move.
“We continue for the sake of our people’s dreams. Intimidation is not going to bring results,” he said.
“I don’t have any agenda but to serve my people,” he stressed.
Ati now lives in Cairo with his three young daughters. He left Gaza shortly after the war began, triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel. His mother, sister, brother, and brother’s wife were killed in bombardments in northern Gaza. He said he managed to flee with his daughters from the rubble in Nuseirat and was displaced several times before leaving the Strip.
“I lost a lot, like many others in Gaza,” he told the Post. “It’s now clear to me that if this unbearable situation continues, there will be no stability and relief, and we cannot afford for that to happen. We deserve a decent life and freedom,” he added, claiming that many residents in Gaza do not support Hamas.
“I hear from people that they want the Hamas regime to go and that it’s time to turn a new page,” he said.
In a clear reference to Hamas, Ati added, “those responsible for bringing war and destruction upon us do not deserve to continue leading and should relinquish power.”
“An entire people has been punished because of the reckless gamble of one organization [Hamas].”
During the Israel-Hamas War, only a few limited rallies emerged in the Strip, with participants demanding an end to the fighting and protesting worsening conditions.
In March 2025, a local demonstration in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, included calls for Hamas to step down. Those protests were quickly suppressed by Hamas operatives, cracking down on public dissent just as they did in 2019 during the “We Want to Live” protests.
“People are exhausted,” Ati noted. “They are dying and have nothing left to lose.”
“How can someone continue living like this? No health systems, no education, more than 70,000 killed, many others wounded, and so much devastation. We are human beings, not numbers,” he said.