H, a former resident of the Shejaiya neighborhood in Gaza City, hasn't visited the Strip since he was forced to escape overseas several years ago following threats that he received from the Hamas rulers. Since the start of the war, he has been worried about his family, who are currently taking shelter in a school in southern Gaza. "It's hard to contact them on WhatsApp, and every day I think 100 times that – God forbid – they have been killed," he says. "Hamas doesn't care about the people in Gaza."
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"When the residents saw what [Hamas leader] Yahya Sinwar did [in launching the deadly Oct. 7 massacre], they were surprised and afterward they began to say he was a fool and a madman. People are very tired of war. It's enough – how much more? Enough. We know that Hamas started this war, what Sinwar did was suicidal," H tells Israel Hayom.
Video: Shoes of the kidnapped Israelis on display / Dor Malul
"My parents and siblings left home without taking almost anything with them, they rushed to leave. In the beginning, they went to the area of Shati and stayed with friends and then they moved to the south. My 19-year-old brother was injured by shrapnel from an explosion, and now like everyone else, they're trying not to leave the building they're staying in, waiting three hours to fill water, eating what's left, sleeping on the floor, giving the mattresses to the children, and the men are sleeping on the floor," he says.
Even before the war, he understood that if Hamas were in power, there was no chance of living a normal life. "We always knew that Hamas was stealing the Qatari money, taking for themselves the fuel and the electricity instead of giving it to the people living in Gaza."
As someone who has tried to build his life away from the iron fist and oppression of Hamas, he now wishes that Israel will fully eradicate the organization that has led Gaza to destruction.
"The tanks and the Israeli military forces inside Gaza are a great humiliation for Hamas. The movement will never be the same because even after the war Hamas people will continue to be wanted and pursued here or abroad."
However, he explains that the path is still long. "I hope that Hamas will be eliminated after the war but don't think it will happen in a day. Over 17 years they built a stronghold and infrastructure within civil society and the institutions that manage people's lives."
Strive for a formula that will deny Hamas a PR victory
Alongside the complexity and the intensity of the fighting in Gaza and the military activities, H. talks about the need for a long-term plan whose purpose will be to destroy Hamas's rule in Gaza.
"It will take many years. There must be a program whose goal is to remove from Hamas all its authority and governing capabilities in Gaza, that is, to remove from it every area of responsibility and the mechanisms that allow it to control Gaza's citizens. You need to fight against its economic resources, so it won't control the main power station in Gaza or the electricity or anything."
"Changing the arrangements at Rafah Border Crossing is critical," he adds. "There must be supervision there. If you want to bring the Palestinian Authority and international community or bring back the Europeans to Rafah that's fine, but the main thing is that Hamas mustn't run it anymore. there was never inspection over what entered there, Hamas did what it wanted."
Regarding a potential prisoner exchange, there should be, in H's opinion, a formula that denies Hamas a PR victory.
"Of course, people will be happy if Palestinian prisoners are freed from prison, but I also hear people say: "What will any of that be worth now after all the killing, the war, the losses in the soul, and the terrible damage that has been caused? You sacrificed all of Gaza and destroyed it for that? Will the return of thousands of prisoners make up for the terrible price that's been paid?"
Like H., tens of thousands of Palestinian young people left from the Gaza Strip during the 15 years of Hamas rule. "We left because we didn't see a future in Gaza, but Gaza has never left my heart. Me and my friends who live in Europe see that there's another war, and we don't want to return, because we say to ourselves that there's no hope, no horizon. But if you succeed in destroying Hamas, I'll be the first to return. Until we see it with our own eyes, we won't believe it."
