BESIEGED residents of Gaza are taking out their anger on their Hamas rulers over the slaughter and misery unleashed by last month’s attack on Israel.
In scenes unthinkable a few weeks ago refugees shouted anti-Hamas insults as the terrorists launched their latest midnight missile bombardment at Israel.
Beseiged Gaza residents have turned their anger on their Hamas rulers with scuffles breaking outReuters
Hundreds of people in a UN-shelter were witnessed cursing Hamas, which has ruled the strip with an iron fist since 2007.
The refugees also called for an end to the war, which US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said yesterday had killed “far too many Palestinians”.
Speaking at the start of a visit to India, Mr Blinken said: “Much more needs to be done to protect civilians and to make sure that humanitarian assistance reaches them.”
Hamas claims 11,000 people have died, including 4,000 children, since Israel unleashed its revenge for the October 7 massacre.
Swaths of the Gaza Strip have been reduced to rubble, hospitals face power cuts and there are shortages of food, fuel and water as a result of Israel’s siege.
Yet there are growing signs that the people of Gaza blame Hamas for their ordeal.
When a Hamas official rebuked a man for jumping the queue in a breadline, the man smashed a chair over his head, according to an aid worker there.
In another area, angry crowds hurled stones at Hamas police who cut in front of them in a queue for water.
At a press conference on Tuesday a man waving a bandaged fist interrupted Hamas’s interior minister by screaming: “May God hold you to account, Hamas!”
Gun fights erupted close to the Al-Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza City, leaving an unknown number of people dead.
Israel has said the hospital sits above a Hamas command bunker linked to a web of tunnels.
Details emerged as the UN revealed 101 of its staff had been killed in the bomb-blitzed territory since Israel unleashed its revenge operation Iron Sword.
Philippe Lazzarini, boss of UNRWA, the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, said: “They were teachers, school principals, engineers, doctors, a psychologist, support staff, sanitation and tech workers.”
The UN said it was the highest number of its aid workers killed in conflict since the organisation was founded in 1945.
A handful of aid lorries have been allowed to cross the southern Rafah border crossing from Egypt.
But the UN warned the trickle was not enough.
Mr Lazzarini said: “Sewage water is filling the streets. People are queuing for hours at bakeries.
“Soon, winter will arrive, and many could face starvation.”
He also said 50 of the UN’s 150 shelters have been damaged during the bombardments and some have been directly hit.
It came as thousands of refugees marched south yesterday to escape the carnage.
The UN said 1.6million Gazans have fled in total but another 250,000 civilians remain.
Most joined the exodus on foot with little more than the clothes on their back.
Israel agreed to daily four-hour humanitarian pauses and has guaranteed security along one of the main north-south highways for several hours a day.
More needs to be done to protect civilians in Gaza, says US Secretary of State Anthony BlinkenReuters
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