Over a photo of a large protest in Israel – pink smoke billowing from the center of the crowd – TRT Global, widely considered a mouthpiece of the Turkish government, ran this headline on Wednesday: “Israel is now a divided nation on the brink of collapse: ex-Knesset member.”
The headline should serve as a cautionary tale – not because Israel is actually on the verge of collapse (though that may be what the headline writer hoped), but as a reminder to resist jumping to conclusions about the impact of protests in someone else’s backyard.
For instance, time and again, when large demonstrations have erupted in Iran – demonstrations that turned violent – some were quick to proclaim that the regime was about to fall. Yet the regime of the ayatollahs still stands. The moral: often, when watching these developments – hoping for a particular outcome – we see what we want to see and disregard the rest.
All of that is worth keeping in mind when considering some truly astounding developments in Gaza this week. Not the targeted killing of more Hamas leaders, but the demonstrations that broke out on Tuesday and continued into Wednesday and Thursday. It may be tempting to look at these and say they are a sign that Hamas is on the brink of collapse. But that may well be wishful thinking – not unlike that TRT headline.
Even so, those protests – their size, the fact that they took place in numerous locations across the Gaza Strip and continued beyond a single day – represent something new and different, something not seen before: the largest anti-Hamas protests ever held in the Strip.
And that’s not the only change Gaza has witnessed over the past week. On Thursday, some 200 Gazans reportedly left the coastal enclave for medical care elsewhere; on Wednesday, there were reports of a pilot program that, in the coming days, would bring 100 Gazans to Indonesia to work in construction.
Moreover, Israeli media reported that since the war in Gaza began, some 35,000 people have left the area – not forced out, but leaving voluntarily. Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen said during an Army Radio interview that government figures put the actual numbers closer to 70,000-80,000.
A Gallup International poll conducted between March 2 and 13 among 532 Gazans over the age of 18 living in permanent homes, shelter centers, and tent gatherings found that 52% of respondents would leave Gaza if given the chance – 38% temporarily and 14% permanently.
Both these phenomena challenge two long-standing assumptions about Gaza: that the people will never turn on Hamas, and that they will never leave. Yet something seems to be stirring, and it may yet prove that neither of those axioms holds true.
What is the critical question Israel is faced with?
ONE CRITICAL question is how Israel should respond to both phenomena. What should it do?Regarding the second phenomenon – Gazans interested in leaving either permanently or temporarily – the cabinet on Saturday night approved the establishment of a “voluntary migration administration for Gaza residents interested in relocating to third countries.”
According to a statement put out by Defense Minister Israel Katz, this body, which will be under the Defense Ministry, will “operate under Israel and international law, in line with the vision of US President Donald Trump.” Trump last month advocated the mass relocation of Gazans and a US takeover of the area.
The new body is to “prepare for and facilitate safe and controlled relocation, including securing movement, creating designated pedestrian routes at Gaza crossing, and establishing infrastructure for land, sea, and air travel to destination countries.”
According to a Channel 12 report on Sunday, more than 1,000 Gazans have left the region so far this month, and another 600 were to do so by the end of the week. Gazans in need of medical care abroad have been, up until now, allowed to leave with one family member, but now – according to the report – they can exit with their entire families.
In addition, Gazans with dual citizenship or visas in third countries are those leaving. According to the report, those emigrating are brought to a meeting point from where they are taken to Kerem Shalom, where they undergo a Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) security check.
After that they are taken either to the Rafah crossing into Egypt, the Allenby Bridge to Jordan, or the Ramon Airport for flights abroad.
In other words, when it comes to Gaza relocation, Israel is actively involved.
WHEN IT comes to the demonstrations and protests, however, the situation is different – or, as common sense would dictate, at least it should be.
With Hamas already accusing those who have gone out to the protests as “agents” of either Israel or the Palestinian Authority, it is clear that any public embrace by Israel of the protests would only backfire. Nevertheless, that hasn’t prevented the most senior Israeli officials from discussing the protests.
For instance, Katz, in a video with Arabic subtitles on Wednesday, urged Gazans to follow the example of protesters from Beit Lahiya, where the protests originated on Tuesday evening, and “demand the removal of Hamas from Gaza and the immediate release of all Israeli hostages. This is the only way to stop the war.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also addressed the protests from the Knesset plenum on Wednesday, saying that these demonstrations vindicate his policies. “In recent days, we have seen something we’ve never seen before – open protests in the Gaza Strip against Hamas rule,” he said, adding, “this shows that our policy is working.”
AFTER MORE than 16 months of fighting, the question that needs to be asked is: why now? Granted, there were some sporadic demonstrations earlier on during the war, but nothing this large or sustained, and nothing that gained real traction.
One reason proffered has to do with the end of the current ceasefire. According to this theory, Gazans who returned to what remained of their homes when the ceasefire went into effect on January 19 got a taste of quiet — and now that Israel has again begun attacking inside Gaza and warning people to leave their homes, they do not want to relive what they have already endured since October 7.
Dalia Ziada, an Egyptian author and a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, posted on X on Tuesday that similar protests have happened many times before, but have always been “underreported in the media and quickly suppressed by the brutally powerful Hamas and its regional backers.”
This time, she said, the situation is different for three reasons: “Hamas is lonely and devastated; the biased Qatar-sponsored media has already lost its credibility and ability to manipulate the truth; the people of Gaza have broken the barriers of fear after they have been left with nothing to lose.”
Gazan voices heard from the protests
The voices emerging from the protests – where signs include “Out, out, out! Hamas get out,” “We want to live,” and “The blood of our children is not cheap” – bear this out, pointing to a growing willingness among Gazans to express discontent with Hamas despite the potential risks. Hamas has a well-documented history of violently suppressing dissent, so the fact that people are still taking to the streets suggests a sense that there is little left to lose.
One protester, identified as Ammar Hassan, was quoted on PBS as saying, “We are sick of the bombing, killing, and displacement. [Hamas] is the only party we can affect. Protest won’t stop the occupation, but it can affect Hamas.”
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Palestinian-American blogger from Gaza and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, posted on X that “the massive anti-Hamas, anti-war protests in Gaza are not PLO, PA, or Fatah organized. They are organic, popular-led, and entirely authentic expressions of frustrations, anger, rage, fury, and exhaustion by a people being held hostage by Hamas’s ruthless terrorism & criminality.”
These sentiments could weaken Hamas’s authority and support base, potentially affecting its military and political standing. At an operational level, the protests – and Hamas’s likely need to deal with them – may distract it from fighting Israel, something that could prove beneficial to the IDF.
UNTIL NOW, there has been little international reaction to these events, with governments – both Western and Arab – largely staying silent. However, if the protests continue to grow, certain international actors may begin to leverage them to pressure Hamas or support alternative leadership in Gaza.
The silence of pro-Palestinian protesters abroad struck Alkhatib. He wrote that he came across a “seemingly spontaneously organized ‘pro-Palestine’ protest” in Washington on Thursday.
“I thought, wow, maybe they are out here to support the hundreds of thousands of Gazans who have been demonstrating against Hamas and demanding the end of the terror group’s rule. Instead, these demonstrators were repeating the same old tired slogans and made no mention or reference to Gazans who are putting their lives on the line. The tone-deafness of the protesters was astonishing, almost as if they were deliberately trying to obfuscate what was happening in Gaza.”
Alkhatib wrote that in addition to challenging Hamas, these Gaza protesters were exposing the fraud of the mainstream “pro-Palestine solidarity” movement in the West, “one that only cares about Palestinian lives when they fit a narrow anti-Israel agenda and apply selective outrage but never toward an Islamist fascist terrorist organization that destroyed the Palestinian national project and harmed the Palestinian people. Shame on all who are still silent!”
The protests in Gaza don’t mean Hamas is about to fall – just as similar uprisings elsewhere rarely lead to regime change overnight. But they do challenge long-standing assumptions about the people of Gaza: that they will never stand up to Hamas, and that they have nowhere else to go.
For Israel, that presents both a strategic opening and a challenge. It has already moved to support voluntary relocation. When it comes to the protests, however, restraint is key.
Any Israeli effort to embrace or amplify these demonstrations risks discrediting them. But ignoring them entirely would be a missed opportunity.
The task now is not to co-opt this moment but to understand it, hope it grows, and be ready with constructive plans and ideas if and when it does.