Some comments from a conversation I had today - over the phone - with a few colleagues in Gaza:

People curse the day they elected Hamas into power.  If elections were held today, they would be routed out.

It’s taking me an hour to connect on the internet.  I am sure they are monitoring everything we do online, every email we send, and probably this phone conversation.  On the streets they stop every car and rough people up for no reason.  It is becoming the Taliban.

Hamas promised that gas would go down - 20 shekel per canister.  But they are selling at 100 shekel per canister, and even at that price you cannot find any.

Hamas cannot change. They are driven by their ideology, and the most ideological extremists are now in control.  They have shown that they don’t care about the welfare of the Palestinian people, but about imposing their customs and their force upon the population.  They have been exposed.  People are fed up.  They won’t stand it much longer.

I am not sure how much of the above is wishful thinking vs. solid analysis, but it is clear people are suffering and disenchanted with the governance.

Tags: Gaza //