Every regime fears one thing above all: the people turning their backs.
This week in the crumbled streets of Beit Lahia and beyond, that fear came alive for Hamas. For the second day in a row, Gazans marched. Not just against war. Not just against hunger. But, for the first time in years, against Hamas itself. “Hamas out,” they chanted – words rarely spoken aloud, let alone shouted en masse in the shadow of a militant regime known for crushing dissent.
This was no choreographed protest. No illusion of permitted anger. This was raw, desperate and dangerous. And in the theatre of perception, it signals a seismic shift.
Is Hamas’s grip loosening?
In the post-truth era, images move faster than bullets. Footage of these protests, splashed across social media, carries a narrative that Hamas cannot spin away: their grip is loosening. Their authority, once propped up by ideology and fear, is now punctured by starvation, displacement, and death.
Yes, Hamas loyalists are already calling protesters “traitors.” But calling hungry families and grieving parents disloyal only fuels the fire. You don’t need a polling firm to read the mood. When mothers carrying placards that read “no to hunger” are labelled enemies, something fundamental has broken.
This isn’t just dissent – it’s reputational erosion. And in the age of digital resistance, that spreads like wildfire.
Some will say it’s too early to call it a revolt. But revolts don’t start with weapons. They start with whispers. With chants. With Facebook posts like the one from Jameel Abo Saif: “It is time we got some respite.”
Respite. Not revolution. Yet. But the winds have shifted.
And when the people begin to rise, no amount of force, fear or fundamentalism can fully put them back in their place. Not forever. Not anymore.
