In Gaza, a different view of the Hamas raid on Israel

A mood of shock and inevitability has spread over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as residents find themselves plunged into a war that has caught everybody off guard.

But even as the Gaza Strip braces for an Israeli ground assault and its 2 million inhabitants prepare to cope with what Israeli officials call “a complete siege” denying them food, water, fuel, and electricity, a large majority of Palestinians appear to support Hamas militants’ brutal weekend attack on Israel.

Before Israel began retaliating for the deaths of more than 1,000 Israelis, mostly civilians, with massive airstrikes, the breaking news of the surprise Hamas eruption had prompted celebrations on the streets of Ramallah, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, where people distributed sweets to gathering crowds.

Many saw the attack, in which over 100 Israelis were abducted and taken as hostages into Gaza, as retribution for the deaths of Palestinian civilians in earlier rounds of conflict and in daily life. “The world keeps saying this attack is unprovoked, but in fact the world is ignoring how violent the daily occupation is,” says Diana Buttu, a former adviser to the Palestinian delegation to peace talks with Israel, now in abeyance.

Since the United Nations started counting deaths in 2006, 2023 has been the deadliest year for Palestinians – 200 have died this year at the hands of Israeli soldiers or settlers in the occupied West Bank. “We’ve tried to make ourselves likable, and now I think the Palestinians are seeing we can never be in a good place with the international community, so we have pushback instead,” says Ms. Buttu.

The bloody events of last weekend, including the massacre of over 250 revelers at a rave party, have been condemned by people around the world as a terrorist outrage. In Gaza, however, they are widely seen as a breach in the Israeli-built wall that has trapped residents for 16 years and condemned them to victimhood.

“The situation is very devastating, and we couldn’t take it anymore,” says local journalist Hind Khoudary, describing deteriorating living conditions in Gaza. “It may not be aligned with international law, but, for the first time, Palestinians here in Gaza do not feel helpless.”

They are, however, paying a heavy price.

As Israeli missile strikes on the strip continued for a third day, the death toll rose to more than 900 by late Tuesday, including 120 children, according to Palestinian health officials. The Israeli military warned Gaza residents on Tuesday to leave the strip through a border crossing with Egypt, in order to escape danger, but a spokesperson later acknowledged that the crossing is closed. Multiple Israeli missile strikes hit the Gazan side of the border crossing late Monday, effectively sealing Palestinians in, according to the independent Egyptian media outlet Mada Masr.

“It’s difficult to predict anything at this stage,” cautions Ahmad Bassiouni, a Gaza-based researcher, but like many Gazans, he expects an Israeli ground assault in the coming days. The “proper Israeli response hasn’t yet started,” he says.

When it does start, say Hamas officials, there will be no going back. In previous rounds of violence, Hamas lobbed missiles into Israel and then desisted in return for increased economic aid, brokered by Egypt and Qatar. Israeli officials believed that the arrangement was manageable.

But Hamas officials describe the current war as a turning point. “We will not go back to the situation before Oct. 7,” says a Hamas source close to the movement’s leadership, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Hamas appears to have had both domestic and international motivations for its attack, which inflicted the heaviest one-day death toll on Israel since the Jewish state’s foundation in 1948.

Officials told Arab media that their goal was an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and that they were also reacting to alleged violations by Israeli extremists of rules regulating access to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount.

Also in Hamas’ sights is a prisoner swap, according to the Hamas source. He indicated that the movement would seek to exchange more than 100 Israeli civilians and soldiers held hostage in the Gaza Strip, a group that includes children and older Israelis, for Hamas militants held in Israeli jails, although Hamas had “not yet set conditions for the release.”

Unverified, graphic videos, purportedly showing Hamas militants abusing their hostages, are circulating on social media.

In remarks broadcast by Al Jazeera late Monday, Abu Obaida, spokesperson for Hamas’ military wing, announced it would execute an Israeli civilian hostage every time an Israeli missile strike hit a residential building in Gaza without prior warning. 

But Hamas spokesperson Ibrahim Hamad also told Al Jazeera TV on Sunday that the attack was “absolutely a message” to Muslim countries seeking normalization with Israel.

Among them is Saudi Arabia. Palestinian political observers believe the Hamas attack will derail U.S. moves currently underway to broker a deal between Riyadh and Israel. The Israeli military offensive against Gaza is expected to galvanize anti-Israel sentiment on the streets of Arab countries and strengthen public sentiment that Arab states should not ignore the unresolved question of Palestinians’ status as they pursue closer economic and security ties with the Jewish state.

The assault also appeared to be an attempt to alter the balance of power in domestic Palestinian politics, particularly with Hamas’ rival Fatah, which has recognized Israel and forgone resistance to negotiations in the framework of the 30-year-old Oslo peace process. That policy has won few concessions from Israel and lost Fatah support and territorial control in the West Bank, where Fatah is based.

Fatah, and the Palestinian Authority, which it controls, are obliged by the Oslo Accords to cooperate with Israel. But they now find themselves caught in a political bind, faced with a public supporting Hamas’ action and increasingly calling for similar violent resistance.

The Palestinian Authority has been notably silent since Saturday, and officials turned down requests for comment on the political situation.

On the broader international front, Israel and the United States say they had no evidence that Iran was closely involved in planning Saturday’s rampage, as has been reported. In recent months, however, Palestinian Authority officials have warned privately of attempts by Iran to involve itself directly in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by providing arms and funds to new militant groups forming in the West Bank.

They are filling a vacuum left by the demise of Oslo peace talks, says Ms. Buttu, the former adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization team at those talks. She believes that last weekend’s attack and the public support it has attracted among Palestinians are a result of the failure of the peace process and the international community’s reluctance to uphold Palestinian rights or to press Israel to resume talks.

This year marks 30 years since the Oslo Accords, which established the Palestinian Authority as a seed for promised statehood – which seems as distant as ever.

“For all those years, there has been no push on Israel to do anything” that might lead to Palestinian statehood, full civic rights, or an end to violence and discrimination against Palestinians, Ms. Buttu points out. “The message here is ‘enough is enough.’”

Editor's note: This story was updated to reflect the number of Israelis and Palestinians who died.