Sources in the Gaza Strip said that Sunday’s protest in Gaza City could spread to other parts of the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave and trigger mass demonstrations.
By KHALED ABU TOAMEHA Palestinian boy wears the headband of Hamas' armed wing as he takes part in a rally to protest against an Israeli police raid on Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque, in Gaza City September 15, 2015(photo credit: REUTERS/SUHAIB SALEM)
Chanting, “We want to eat. We want to live,” dozens of Palestinian men demonstrated on Sunday outside the offices of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza City to protest economic hardship, poverty and soaring unemployment in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.The protest came following the deaths of three young Palestinian men who committed suicide over the weekend in the Gaza Strip. In addition, a woman from the southern Gaza Strip who tried to take her own life by hanging was critically injured.On Sunday morning, another Palestinian man from the Gaza Strip was seriously injured after he tried to commit suicide by swallowing a large number of antibiotics. It was the sixth failed suicide attempt in the Gaza Strip in the past few weeks.The deaths of the three men – two unemployed university graduates and a disgruntled street vendor – have sparked widespread anger among Palestinians, many of whom are blaming Hamas and the Palestinian Authority for the failure to improve living conditions of Gazans and provide jobs for young people.Sunday’s protest in Gaza City could spread to other parts of the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave and trigger mass demonstrations similar to those that took place there in 2019, sources in the Gaza Strip said.One of the men who committed suicide over the weekend was identified as Sleman Alajoury, 23.His friends and family members said he had played a key role in organizing the 2019 economic protests in the Gaza Strip and had been arrested several times by Hamas security services.Then, thousands of Palestinians took to the streets to protest economic hardship and new taxes imposed by Hamas on the residents of the Gaza Strip. Hamas security forces and militiamen used excessive force to break up the protests, detaining hundreds of Palestinians in various parts of the Gaza Strip.Hamas officials said the protests, the largest since the Islamist movement violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, were part of a “conspiracy” to undermine Hamas and bring about its downfall.Over the past 48 hours, dozens of Palestinian activists who used social-media platforms to organize the 2019 protests have again called on Palestinians to take to the streets to protest the dire economic situation in the Gaza Strip.Hamas, for its part, has ordered its security forces and Izzadin al-Qassam, its so-called “military wing,” to be on high alert to “thwart any suspicious attempt to create instability and anarchy” in the Gaza Strip.In a move reflecting their fear of a new wave of mass demonstrations, Hamas militiamen on Saturday night detained a number of Palestinian journalists working for a Jordanian TV station who were preparing a report on the latest spate of suicides in the Gaza Strip.Hamas security officers later detained several activists belonging to the rival Fatah faction as they arrived to offer condolences to the family of Alajoury. A source in the Gaza Strip identified one of the detained activists as Fadi Othman, a senior Fatah operative.In another sign of Hamas’s growing uneasiness, the movement announced last weekend that its men have arrested members of a cell who were planning to carry out “sabotage attacks against the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip.” The alleged saboteurs had worked on directions from Israel, Hamas claimed. It did not provide further details.The announcement regarding the cell is seen by many Palestinians as a preemptive move that aims to deter local activists from heeding calls to stage protests against economic hardship in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is actually sending a warning message that anyone who protests in public will be accused of working for Israel.Hamas also seems to be wary of ongoing attempts by Salafist jihadist groups to challenge its rule over the Gaza Strip.According to two Palestinian journalists from the Gaza Strip, Hamas recently uncovered yet another plot by the extremist al-Qaeda-affiliated groups to carry out a series of bombing attacks. The attacks, the journalists said, were supposed to target Hamas policemen in various parts of the Gaza Strip.Hamas security forces reportedly arrested several Salafist jihadist operatives and confiscated explosive devices and ammunition found in their possession.“There’s an attempt to destabilize the internal front in the Gaza Strip,” said Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif Qanou. “The attempt is part of a plot concocted by the Zionist enemy to undermine the resolve of our people and create confusion among the members of the Palestinian resistance.”The Hamas spokesman’s remarks are seen by some Palestinians in the context of the movement’s effort to divert attention from the dire economic situation in the Gaza Strip. Moreover, they are seen as part of Hamas’s attempt to prevent a rebellion that could topple its regime.In the past few weeks, Hamas has been calling on Palestinians to launch “popular resistance” activities against Israel over its intention to apply sovereignty to parts of the West Bank. It now appears, however, that the chances of an uprising erupting against Hamas are higher than those against Israel.
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