Gazans Chant: ‘The People Want to Topple Hamas!’ Finally daring to speak out against the real cause of their misery. by Hugh Fitzgerald
https://www.frontpagemag.com/gazans-chant-the-people-want-to-topple-hamas/
While the IDF continues to provide safe corridors for civilians fleeing from Khan Yunis, Hamas operatives try to hold them back, for they are the human shields Hamas relies on to discourage IDF attacks. Now Gazans are openly expressing their anger with Hamas, which wants to keep them imperiled, and also has been appropriating much of the humanitarian aid that has been trucked into the Strip. More on this public display of anger directed at Hamas can be found here: “Gazans call for overthrow of Hamas as they flee through IDF humanitarian corridor,” by Gadi Zaig, Jerusalem Post, January
The IDF has established a humanitarian corridor in recent days for Palestinian residents of western Khan Yunis to move from combat areas to the town of Al-Mawasi in southwestern Gaza, IDF Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee announced on Saturday.
Adraee said that Gazan residents would be safe in Al-Mawasi and that the corridor has been opened to evacuate civilians every day so that the IDF can focus on fighting the Hamas terrorist organization and deepening its incursion into Khan Yunis without the risk of civilians being injured in the process.
Tens of thousands of Gazans have already passed through this corridor safely, according to the spokesperson.
Adraee also quoted a number of Gazan civilians passing through the corridor, who informed IDF soldiers that Hamas was preventing them from leaving combat areas, using threats and violence. Additionally, IDF soldiers were also assisting civilians at the scene, including the elderly and sick.
The humanitarian corridor remains open until 4 p.m. for residents to cross over to Al-Mawasi.
“The people want to topple Hamas,” can be heard from the Palestinian civilians chanting.
COGAT official Major-General Rasan Aliyan said that “In recent days, we see more and more evidence of public criticism voiced by the residents of Gaza against the terrorist organization Hamas. The residents of the Gaza Strip rightly prefer their well-being and the safety of their children over the continued military strengthening of Hamas and the terrorist activities that harm them and their future.”
Palestinians were also seen evacuating from the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis on Friday, with COGAT stating that “Hamas operates from and around the Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals. The systematic use of hospitals across Gaza by Hamas has been documented, including Hamas shooting a rocket from within the hospital….
Hamas uses hospitals as places where it can hide both weapons and fighters, and from which its operatives can launch rocket, RPG, and machine-gun attacks on Israeli soldiers. It is critical that civilians remain in them, acting as human shields, and limiting the IDF’s freedom to search and destroy.
The IDF has established a safe corridor for Gazan civilians who wish at this point to leave the areas in and around the last two hospitals — Nasser and Al-Amal Hospitals — that are still functioning in Khan Yunis. The IDF is cooperating with medical staff in order that both hospitals can remain open and accessible to those needing treatment.
Gazans are finally daring to speak out against the real cause of their misery — Hamas. It is not only that Hamas tries to prevent civilians from fleeing to safety, in order that they remain as human shields – it even kills some Gazans in flight to discourage others from attempting to do the same. Equally enraging to Gazan civilians, Hamas also retains control of the humanitarian aid — food and medicine — that donors send for the people of Gaza. Hamas appropriates much of that aid for itself, and what its operatives don’t use for themselves is sold on the black market. Aid meant to be free is instead sold at high prices to desperate civilians, with Hamas pocketing the profits.
That is why the civilians fleeing Khan Yunis have been shouting “Down with Hamas”and “The people want to topple Hamas.” And, with help from the IDF, they will.
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