For a Truly Free Palestine, Gaza Must Be Freed From Hamas

How Hamas’s corruption, militarism, and authoritarian rule have stolen Gaza’s future, and why real Palestinian freedom depends on ending its grip.

By Sean Ash

For decades, the world has been told that Gaza is desperately poor, blockaded, and oppressed. But let’s dig deeper. Gaza’s poverty is not just the result of Israel’s security measures; it is also the consequence of Hamas’s disastrous, corrupt, and militant rule.


Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 through violence and has ruled ever since with an iron fist. Dissent is crushed. Opposing parties like Fatah have been violently persecuted. Journalists face censorship and intimidation. Political critics have been jailed, tortured, or killed. Public morality laws are strictly enforced, and civil society is kept under tight control.


Hamas operates through fear, maintaining its grip with secret police, religious hardliners, and an authoritarian culture that leaves ordinary Gazans with no meaningful political voice. Meanwhile, its leaders enrich themselves while the people suffer. Reports have shown that Hamas commanders and their families have stashed cash in underground bunkers, and luxury goods like Birkin handbags have been linked to their circles.


Despite receiving nearly $1 billion a year in revenue from local taxes, tunnel fees, Iranian funding, and Qatari cash injections, Hamas spends huge portions on military priorities. Rocket production, tunnel digging, and paying thousands of armed fighters eat up hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Only a fraction is left for schools, hospitals, and social services. Tens of millions vanish into a murky network of bribes and patronage to keep Hamas officials and loyalists in power.


Ordinary Gazans survive on erratic power supplies, undrinkable water, and broken infrastructure, while Hamas focuses on military expansion rather than community wellbeing. Even the civilian death tolls you see in the news are controlled by Hamas. Their Gaza Health Ministry is the main, sometimes the only, source of fatality numbers, which are then amplified globally. Independent verification is difficult because both Hamas and Israel limit outside journalists, and international agencies rely on the Health Ministry for daily casualty updates. This allows Hamas to drive narratives about genocide and war crimes while hiding its own practice of using civilians as human shields, which is a war crime itself.


Hamas has not only mismanaged Gaza, it has weaponised it. It launches attacks from densely populated civilian areas, making its own people suffer the consequences when Israel strikes back. And while Hamas claims to defend Palestinians, it has routinely kidnapped civilians, murdered political rivals, and executed collaborators without fair trials.


Meanwhile, Israel, despite the blockade, has in the past granted work permits for thousands of Gazans, offering them stable, well-paid jobs. Before October 7, 2023, around 17,000 Gazans worked legally in Israel, bringing money home to feed their families. This was a lifeline for many, but Hamas repeatedly undermined such opportunities by escalating violence.


If Hamas were removed from power, Gaza’s future could be radically different. A new, nonviolent, accountable leadership could open the door to real prosperity. Israel and Egypt might still maintain security checks, but border crossings would likely reopen more fully. International donors would pour in money to rebuild hospitals, roads, and schools with confidence that funds would not be diverted to weapons. Private investment could revive local industries, from textiles to fishing to construction.


Gaza’s infrastructure could be modernised, and tens of thousands more Gazans could work in Israel or even beyond, helping lift the territory out of dependency. In five to ten years, per capita income could double or triple, unemployment could drop dramatically, and Gaza could move closer to the living standards of Jordan or Egypt.


The tragedy of Gaza is not just siege and poverty, it is Hamas’s hijacking of a people’s future. If Palestinians truly want freedom, dignity, and prosperity, they must first be free of Hamas. Only then can Gaza, and a future Palestinian state, build a foundation based on peace, justice, and self-determination.


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