How Hamas Fools Palestinians

Stand for Israel | September 25, 2019

Explosion In Gaza City — A boy relative of Hamas security member Salama al-Nadeem, 32, mourns during his funeral in Gaza City on 28, 2019. - The Gaza Strip was in a "state of alert" on August 28 after explosions killed several policemen in the Palestinian enclave the previous night. Witnesses told AFP that both bombings were suicide attacks, but there was no official confirmation. A source familiar with the investigation said a Salafist movement in Gaza that sympathises with Islamic State group jihadists was suspected. (Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The Palestinians in Gaza — stuck in a quagmire of poverty and hatred of Israel — are kept that way by the Strip’s ruling party, the terrorist group Hamas. Hamas’ leadership incites these very people to violence, thinking little of the lives lost and the suffering caused. The Gatestone Institute’s Bassam Tawil writes that this selfishness and cynicism should cause Palestinians to revolt against those who hold them in poverty and send them to their deaths:

The leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian terror group ruling the Gaza Strip since 2007, seem to have hearts of stone regarding the suffering of the people living under their regime.
These leaders have no problem sending Palestinians to risk their lives near the border with Israel, while they and their families enjoy a comfortable life. More than 250 Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured in clashes with the Israel Defense Forces since the beginning of the Hamas-sponsored weekly protests near the Gaza-Israel border in March 2018.
While the protests are continuing and more Palestinians continue to put their lives at risk at the behest of the Hamas leadership, the terror group’s senior officials are busy throwing lavish parties for their family members and upgrading their personal treasuries. It is as if the Hamas leaders were telling their people: Sacrifice yourself for the cause of destroying Israel and killing Jews so that we and our families can continue to live it up.
The latest example of this exploitation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip surfaced in the form of a video of the birthday celebration of 20-year-old Mohammed, son of senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad.
Hamad, a former deputy foreign minister in the Hamas government of 2012, currently serves as deputy minister in the Hamas-controlled Ministry for Social Welfare and is personally entrusted with overseeing aid to the most impoverished families in the Gaza Strip. Ironically, the man in charge of caring for the poorest families was caught on camera throwing a lavish birthday party for his son.
The video of the birthday party in the Gaza Strip has gone viral on social media. Many Palestinians expressed outrage over the celebration which, they said, took place at a time when the residents of the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave are facing dire economic conditions and are being killed in clashes with the Israeli security forces as they try to infiltrate the border with Israel and throw rocks, petrol bombs and explosive devices at Israeli soldiers.
“The sons of our leaders are always different from the ordinary people,” commented Facebook user Ahmad Hassan.
Another Palestinian, Bashar Bashar, wrote: “This party is at the expense of the victims of the weekly demonstrations [near the border with Israel].”
Hussein Qatoush, yet another Facebook user, wrote: “Frustrated Palestinian youths are committing suicide because of poverty, while the sons of the leaders are holding birthday parties!”