A number of Palestinians in the Hamas-controlled city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip openly protested poor living conditions within the enclave Wednesday, videos appear to show.
A crowd of Gazans including men, women and children could be seen in the set of videos gathering around tires that were lit on fire protesting rampant price gouging in broad daylight, Gaza Report, a news and analysis site that gathers material from open sources in the Gaza Strip, tweeted alongside the set of videos. (RELATED: Video Shows Gazan Cursing Out Hamas, Asking Israel To Wipe Them Out. Are The Tides Turning?)
It caused prices for basic goods, especially Rafah, to skyrocket. The residents have now moved their night protests to broad daylight, something not seen even at the peak of the We Want to Live movement.
See here the open protests at Najma Roundabout in Rafah, just today! pic.twitter.com/MqGiqshPN8
— Gaza Report – اخبار غزة (@gaza_report) February 28, 2024
Gaza Report’s comment about the “We Want to Live” movement references a popular slogan used during a wave of protests in March and April of 2019 by Gazans against economic conditions under Hamas, The Times of Israel reported. The slogan was reportedly chanted again during protests in the summer of 2023, prior to the Oct. 7 massacre.
“The driver to this unprecedented dissent is the chaotic aid economy in Gaza, which the Hamas agents engineered into a highly profitable black market, Gaza Report tweeted. “They hijacked the aid, sold it to Gazan merchants and crime families, and profited tens of millions to refill lost tax revenues.”
“Did they bring us from Gaza [City] to here to provide us with food and drink, or to kill us?” one protester told the AFP, The Times of Israel reported. “I do not see any government official here.”
The “people’s committees,” a new group that claims it is protecting the aid and is acting against price gouging, made an appearance during the protests, Gaza Report tweeted. “They openly challenge Hamas with their [set of] own headbands.”
The greatest act of defiance: Today saw the appearance of the organized “people’s committees” created to protect the aid and restore reasonable prices from the Hamas agents who seek to steal and profit from it.
They openly challenge Hamas with their own headbands. pic.twitter.com/ZSUsYi5cG0
— Gaza Report – اخبار غزة (@gaza_report) February 28, 2024
Gaza Report also tweeted out a video of the group.
Here is the people’s protection committees, with open symbols, weapons, in broad daylight, declaring their establishment to “preserve order” & guard “prices”
They claim that they are “assisting” the interior ministry, a finger in the eye to Hamas.
Israel is not mentioned. https://t.co/0vMmpBKCRq pic.twitter.com/N6N5JbS3gy
— Gaza Report – اخبار غزة (@gaza_report) February 28, 2024
The footage showed a number of men clad in black balaclava masks posing in front of the camera. Two of the men were armed with rifles and were speaking in Arabic to the camera. The bandanas of the group appear to be of a tan coloration with Arabic letters written in brown across it. Hamas operatives, when clad in military uniform, reportedly have a green bandana with Arabic letters written in white.
This is far from the first time Gazans have protested Hamas in the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War that has brought hardship to the residents of the area. Protests that in any way are seen as against Hamas run the risk of violence. Protesters in northern Gaza were allegedly fired on by Hamas forces resulting in one dead and three injured, according to The Times of Israel.