In their despair and fury, these Gazans, and foreign volunteers, too, have chosen to speak out, despite the obvious danger to themselves.
By Hugh Fitzgerald, Frontpage Magazine
Hamas embeds its men and hides its weapons, among the civilian population of Gaza. It holds the people, hostage, as human shields against Israeli attacks, knowing that the IDF will withhold fire if it thinks too many civilians may be killed or injured in an attack about to be launched on Hamas combatants.
And if — as is unavoidable — some civilians are wounded or killed because of their proximity to Hamas’ combatants and weapons storehouses, Hamas knows it can use those casualties for propaganda purposes.
It is indifferent to the welfare of the people of Gaza. Hamas members even steal much of the humanitarian aid – food and medicine trucked into Gaza, for the use of themselves and their families, before it can be properly distributed to its intended recipients, the people of Gaza.
The food is being sent in by the IDF — more than 40,000 truckloads of humanitarian aid so far — and there is no attempt by Israel to “starve the population,” as Palestinian propagandists claim, but the problem is that once the trucks are inside Gaza, Hamas prevents the equitable distribution of the aid, and instead helps itself to as much of that aid as it wants.
It is a dangerous thing to criticize Hamas, but more and more people in Gaza have been sickened by what the terror group has inflicted on them, using them as human shields, stealing their aid, exploiting their deaths for propaganda purposes.
In their despair and fury, these Gazans, and foreign volunteers, too, have chosen to speak out, despite the obvious danger to themselves.
More on those in Gaza – including foreign volunteers — now wiling to publicly denounce Hamas, can be found here: “‘Traders in our blood’: Gazan pleads to be saved from Hamas ‘before the Jews,’” Jerusalem Post, August 10, 2024:
Displaced Gazans have begun begging for allies to save them from Hamas amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas terror group ruling the enclave, Saudi media reported on Friday.
“Save us from Hamas before the Jews. I appeal to every living conscience to watch. These are traders in our blood. Every day they trade in our blood,” one Palestinian pled in a video that has gone viral, the Saudi Al Marsd reported.
“Our children and women are in the streets. Oh, conscience of the world, save us from Hamas before the Jews,” he continued.
The man had been displaced on Friday from Khan Yunis, Walla reported.
Anti-Hamas dissidents in Gaza
Some Palestinians have spoken out against Hamas as well as the actions the group has taken to maximize the war’s impact on civilian populations.
Hamas has been accused of stealing humanitarian aid destined for civilians and, in July, was recorded beating hungry Gazans attempting to access resources from a warehouse.
Terrorists were recorded beating a restrained and blindfolded civilian with sticks.
Despite polls showing widespread support for the terror group, Arab media outlets like the Qatari state-owned Al Jazeera network have been caught censoring criticism of the group….
Al Jazeera is owned by the government of Qatar, that is also the main financial supporter of the terror group Hamas.
Unsurprisingly, Al Jazeera — the largest Arab media outlet in the world — chooses to censor any criticism of Hamas, especially by the Gazans themselves.
In its interviews with civilians resident in Gaza, at the first sign of any disaffection with Hamas, the interview is simply shut down.
It takes a great deal of courage — you are risking your life — for a Gazan or even a foreign volunteer publicly to criticize Hamas.
But the group’s indifference to, or even satisfaction with, civilian casualties — because of their usefulness in anti-Israel propaganda and their rapacity in seizing food and other humanitarian aid for themselves and their families — has been too much for some Gazans to bear.
It is the doctors working in Gaza who are on the front lines, seeing the suffering that Hamas has caused ordinary Gazans by embedding itself and its weapons in the civilian population, and hearing stories of how both food and medical supplies have been seized by Hamas, who have been most outspoken.
And the doctors, some of whom are foreign volunteers, are somewhat protected from retaliation by Hama if they speak out against the terror group, because their services are understood to be so essential to the Gazans’ wellbeing, including of course the care they provide to wounded members of Hamas.
One can understand why Al Jazeera, funded by the same Qatari government that funds Hamas, will not report on anti-Hamas sentiment in Gaza.
But what explains the silence of the BBC, CNN, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and The New York Times on those in Gaza who now denounce Hamas as “scum”?
Or their failure to report on the Kurdish volunteer doctor, Dr. Baxtiyar Baram, who claims that only 10% of the population in Gaza now supports Hamas?
Or the doctor in Gaza, himself wounded in Operation Arnon, who denounced the “rotten leadership” of Hamas? Surely this is a story worth reporting.
Go to it, Western media, or are you afraid that by exposing Hamas’ mistreatment of Gazans, you would be helping Israel — and that, of course, would never do?