Gaza’s Citizens are Turning Against Hamas

A quiet but dangerous rebellion is spreading through the rubble of Gaza. Ordinary citizens — teachers, lawyers, parents — are standing up to Hamas, even as the terror group tightens its grip and silences dissent with bullets.

In classrooms tucked away from Hamas surveillance, children are being taught something unthinkable under militant rule: peace. One teacher in Rafah, Samira Mousa Mohammed Abu Mousa, has transformed her lessons into acts of defiance.

“I despise Hamas,” she told the Center for Peace Communications. “They were discriminatory, biased, even in hiring. You needed connections just to get work.”

Her students, many of them displaced by two years of war, are learning more than reading and math. During one lesson, she asked: “Is it OK to violate a girl’s rights and lock her in her room?” The children shouted back: “No way! Everyone has the right to freedom!”

Samira’s words cut to the heart of Gaza’s new resistance: “People like me yearn for peace, comfort, hope, and safety. We want to live in an environment free of war, shelling and destruction. We will begin again and restore education, God willing.”

Hamas is responding to this growing dissent with brutal force.

Moumen al-Natour, a lawyer and co-founder of the We Want to Live movement, says he is being hunted like a fugitive.

“They’ve been tracking me for months,” he told Fox News Digital. “I’m moving from place to place, hiding because I don’t want to be killed or even paralyzed. This is how Hamas operates.”

Al-Natour says the tide turned after Hamas’ bloody October 7 attack on Israel, which triggered a war that has devastated Gaza. “There used to be some opposition,” he explained. “But now? Almost the entire population despises them. People blame Hamas for the suffering, for the starvation, for the destruction.”

Hamas has answered this backlash with chilling threats. Al-Natour describes how the group recently released a video of its fighters executing accused dissidents. “They warned the rest of us: anyone who speaks out will be treated as an enemy.”

Even outside Gaza, the anti-Hamas wave is growing. Mkhaimer Abusada, a Palestinian political analyst now in Cairo, told reporters: “The Palestinian people have endured unimaginable hardship — killing, destruction, starvation. At the end of the day, they blame Hamas for Oct. 7.”

Abusada predicts darker days ahead as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, backed strongly by President Trump, pushes to take full control of Gaza. “The Israeli cabinet’s plan to take over the Strip will make the situation even more catastrophic,” he warned.

But many Gazans see no future under Hamas rule. One man, who requested anonymity, told investigators bluntly: “They’re just killers. Stupid people. We don’t want to fight Israel. We want safe zones, places where we can live far from Hamas and get aid.”

President Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed that America will stand with Israel as it seeks to root out Hamas. Former Arkansas Governor and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Fox News earlier this week: “Gazans don’t hate the IDF. They hate Hamas. And they love America.”

Washington insiders say the Trump administration is quietly watching the grassroots movements in Gaza with interest, seeing them as a rare opportunity to break Hamas’ monopoly on power.

Nearly two years of war have displaced almost the entire population of Gaza. Food shortages, lack of clean water, and constant bombardments have left the enclave in ruins. Yet amid the devastation, a whisper of defiance grows louder each day.

“For the first time,” al-Natour said, “people are speaking out, even at great personal risk. They want change. They want an end to the violence. And they are ready to make their voices heard.”