Was there anti-Hamas protests in Palestine?
Executive summary
Yes — Palestinians have staged public anti‑Hamas protests in Gaza and elsewhere in the Palestinian territories during 2023–2025, with multiple credible outlets documenting crowds chanting against Hamas and calling for an end to its rule; these demonstrations were widely reported but remain contested in scale, motive and consequence [1] [2] [3].
1. What happened on the ground: visible anti‑Hamas demonstrations
Reporters and international outlets documented Palestinians taking to the streets in Gaza to criticize Hamas, including rallies in the northern and southern Gaza Strip where demonstrators chanted slogans such as “Hamas get out!” and other anti‑Hamas phrases during anti‑war protests in March and May 2025 [1] [2]; coverage compiled later notes large anti‑Hamas and anti‑war protests in North Gaza Governorate on 25 March 2025 and continued street actions into spring and summer of 2025 [4] [3].
2. Who joined the protests and what they were demanding
Witnesses and reporting describe a mix of young people and broader community members joining initially anti‑war demonstrations that evolved to include explicit calls for Hamas to step down because of governance failures, economic collapse and the toll of sustained conflict, with some protesters carrying signs like “The children of Palestine want to live” and others explicitly urging Hamas to leave power [1] [5] [6].
3. How representative were the protests — a real uprising or a narrow outcry?
Analysts and local sources caution against overreading the demonstrations as a uniform or majority rejection of Hamas: polling experts and observers say Hamas has never enjoyed consistent majority support in Gaza and that dissent exists, yet high levels of national and religious loyalty and few political alternatives complicate interpretation; some outlets and fact‑checks concluded it is “difficult to state with certainty” that the protests represented a broad uprising exclusively targeting Hamas [6] [3].
4. Contestation, regret and the politics of amplification
Several protesters later told reporters they regretted participation after outside media emphasized the “anti‑Hamas” angle, and local testimonies indicate chants and slogans during demonstrations were diverse — targeting not only Hamas but also Israel, the Palestinian Authority and regional mediators — which suggests the events reflected a range of grievances rather than a single coordinated anti‑Hamas movement [3] [1].
5. Repression, danger and competing narratives
Reporting warned that speaking out against Hamas in Gaza is dangerous: outlets cited claims that Hamas security forces have suppressed dissent and that some anti‑Hamas organizers faced detention, while Israeli media reported harsh reprisals including allegations of torture and executions of demonstrators — allegations that have been reported but remain politically charged and contested [1] [4].
6. How Hamas and external actors framed the protests
Hamas portrayed the demonstrations as manipulations by external enemies seeking to delegitimize its rule, while external political actors and media sometimes amplified the protests to support broader policy narratives; commentators noted that pro‑Israel actors and PR networks seized on anti‑Hamas footage to dramatize a shift in Gazan sentiment even as local accounts stressed mixed motives and limited scale [6] [5].
7. Bottom line and limits of the record
The confirmed record is clear that Palestinians in Gaza and other parts of the territories publicly protested and in many instances chanted explicitly against Hamas in 2025; however, the size, representativeness and political implications of those protests remain disputed in reporting, with credible journalism documenting both genuine local anger and significant questions about how broadly those demonstrations reflect popular will [1] [2] [6].