37 minutes ago
By Lucy Williamson & Rushdi Aboualouf, BBC Middle East correspondent & Gaza correspondent
A man sits inside a building damaged by Israeli strikes conducted during an operation to rescue four hostages held in Nuseirat refugee camp last month. The man in the video is beside himself, a mask of anguish radiating through his bloodied face.
“I am an academic doctor,” he says, “I had a good life, but we have a filthy [Hamas] leadership. They got used to our bloodshed, may God curse them! They are scum!”
The video – unthinkable before the Gaza war – was filmed outside a hospital, inundated with hundreds of Palestinian casualties after an Israeli operation to free hostages from central Gaza last month.
Warning: Graphic image
Seconds before the video ends, he turns to the crowd.
“I’m one of you,” he says, “but you are a cowardly people. We could have avoided this attack!”
The video went viral. And it’s not the only one.
An injured man in Gaza denounced the Hamas leadership’s actions in a video shared on social media last month. Open criticism of Hamas has been growing in Gaza, both on the streets and online.
Some have publicly criticised Hamas for hiding the hostages in apartments near a busy marketplace, or for firing rockets from civilian areas.
Residents have told the BBC that swearing and cursing against the Hamas leadership is now common in the markets, and that some drivers of donkey carts have even nicknamed their animals after the Hamas leader in Gaza – Yahya Sinwar – urging the donkeys forward with shouts of “Yallah, Sinwar!”
“People say things like, ‘Hamas has destroyed us’ or even call on God to take their lives,” one man said. “They ask what the 7 October attacks were for – some say they were a gift to Israel.”
Some are even urging their leaders to agree a ceasefire with Israel.
There are still those in Gaza fiercely loyal to Hamas and after years of repressive control, it’s difficult to know how far the group is losing support, or how far existing opponents feel more able to speak their mind.
But a senior Hamas official privately acknowledged to the BBC, months ago, that they were losing support as a result of the war.
And even some on the group’s own payroll are wavering.
One senior Hamas government employee told the BBC that the Hamas attacks were “a crazy, uncalculated leap”.
He asked that we concealed his identity.
“I know from my work with the Hamas government that it prepared well for the attack militarily, but it neglected the home front,” he said. “They did not build any safe shelters for people, they did not reserve enough food, fuel and medical supplies. If my family and I survive this war, I will leave Gaza, the first chance I get.”
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, pictured here in April 2023, has been in hiding since the start of the war. There was opposition to Hamas long before the war, though much of it remained hidden for fear of reprisals.
The last time Palestinian elections were held, in 2006, in the party list vote Gazans voted for Hamas in 15 out of 24 seats in the territory – in the other nine districts, voters chose a different party.
A year later, Hamas violently ejected Palestinian Authority forces from Gaza causing a bitter rift with the rival Fatah movement, and took over the running of the whole Gaza Strip.
Ameen Abed, a political activist, said he had been arrested many times for speaking out against Hamas before the war, but said – nine months on – dissent was becoming more common there.
“In Gaza, most people criticise what Hamas has done,” he said. “They see children living in tents, and insulting their leaders has become routine. But it has a lot of support among those outside Gaza’s border, who are sitting under air conditioners in their comfortable homes, who have not lost a child, a home, a future, a leg.”
Desperation and war are eroding social structures in Gaza, and Hamas control is not what it was. Four-fifths of Gaza’s population is displaced, often moving between temporary shelters.
And law and order has broken down in places, partly as a result of Israel’s policy of targeting Gaza’s security forces – not just the official Hamas internal security service, but also the community police responsible for street crime.
As control has waned, criminal gangs have thrived, looting neighbourhoods and aid convoys; and private security companies – some run by powerful local families – have emerged.
The UN says more than 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced across Gaza. One staff member from an aid organisation operating in Gaza described “absolute chaos at street level” and “a state of anarchy”, saying that civilian order had completely broken down as a result of the Israeli policy.
Israel’s prime minister has repeatedly vowed to continue the war until Hamas’s military and governing capabilities are destroyed. But some aid agencies – in both northern and south areas of Gaza – have also reported regular checks on their activities by local Hamas officials, and videos are frequently circulated of unofficial Hamas security forces shooting and beating those caught looting.
One well-placed source told the BBC that dozens of people had been killed by Hamas in bloody score-settling with other local groups, after Israeli troops withdrew from one area.
Fear of criticising Gaza’s leaders might have lessened, but it hasn’t gone, so it is still hard to accurately gauge, beyond individual testimony, how far support for the group is shifting.
Some, like 26-year-old Jihad Talab, still strongly support Hamas. Desplazado del área de Zeitoun de la Ciudad de Gaza con su esposa, hija y madre, y ahora refugiado en Deir al Balah, dijo que el grupo no era responsable de su sufrimiento.
“Debemos apoyar [Hamas] porque es el que trabaja en el terreno, el que entiende la batalla – no tú ni yo”, dijo. “Las acusaciones vacías solo sirven a la Ocupación [Israel]. Lo apoyaremos hasta nuestro último aliento.”
Después de casi nueve meses de guerra, un trabajador humanitario dijo que Gaza estaba en un “estado de anarquía”.
Una encuesta regular realizada por un grupo de expertos con sede en Cisjordania, el Centro Palestino de Investigación y Encuestas Políticas, afirma que la mayoría de la gente en Gaza sigue culpando a Israel y sus aliados por la guerra, en lugar de a Hamas.
La última encuesta en junio dijo que casi dos tercios de los encuestados de Gaza estaban satisfechos con Hamas – un aumento de 12 puntos desde diciembre – y sugirió que alrededor de la mitad seguiría prefiriendo que Hamas gobierna Gaza después de que termine la guerra, sobre cualquier otra opción.
Vistazos a través de resquicios en el bloqueo mediático alrededor de Gaza nunca pueden dar una evaluación completa de la situación. Los periodistas internacionales están prohibidos por Israel y Egipto de informar sobre la situación allí de primera mano.
Lo que está claro es que Hamas sigue siendo muy sensible a la opinión pública.
Mensajes sorprendentemente similares aparecen regularmente en ciertas plataformas de redes sociales para justificar sus acciones, a menudo aparentemente en respuesta a la crítica en el país.
Una fuente familiarizada con Hamas le dijo a la BBC que había una red internacional organizada para coordinar mensajes en redes sociales para el grupo.
Después de que familias israelíes publicaran un video mostrando el momento en que unidades de Hamas secuestraron a soldados femeninas el 7 de octubre, algunos en Gaza cuestionaron si atacar a mujeres durante la guerra estaba en línea con la enseñanza islámica.
En respuesta, varias cuentas pro-Hamas en redes sociales emitieron mensajes similares insistiendo en que los soldados – hombres o mujeres – eran objetivos militares justificados, y diciendo que la unidad había estado involucrada en disparar contra manifestantes gazatíes durante manifestaciones hace seis años.
Las críticas a Hamas se están volviendo más agudas, y las divisiones enterradas durante mucho tiempo sobre el gobierno de Hamas en Gaza se están volviendo claras.
De la destrucción dejada por la batalla de Israel con Hamas, está surgiendo una nueva guerra: una batalla por el control de la opinión pública dentro de Gaza misma.