Hamas has brought destruction upon Gaza

(MEMRI via JNS) — In two recent articles published by Saudi website Elaph, Palestinian writer Majdi Abd al-Wahhab directs harsh criticism at Hamas, stating that its Oct. 7 attack against Israel brought nothing but disaster upon the Palestinians people.

The following are excerpts from the articles, translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute:

Jan. 9, 2024 article

Anyone who sees the destruction in Gaza, in terms of human lives, buildings, and on the economic, financial and psychological levels, cannot but pray to Allah and ask him to curse all those who caused this destruction. How can we not curse the people who caused this, given this complete devastation? How can we not curse Hamas and its leaders after they have destroyed every element of dignified existence in the Gaza Strip?

When Hamas carried out its attack [on Oct. 7] and invaded the [Israeli] localities on the Gaza border, did it expect Israel to refrain from retaliating in force and from delivering blow after blow to the Gaza Strip, given its desire for revenge and given the international backing it receives, and in the absence of any power that can force it to stop its war against Gaza?

Wouldn’t it have been appropriate for Hamas, which has already proved its [considerable] planning abilities, to invest these abilities and energies in building up the Gaza Strip and completing the growth that had been achieved there—[growth] that was the envy of many Arabs and Muslims living in Yemen, Somalia or other countries, [whereas today] the Gazans wish to achieve the level of those [countries] and see them as a safe haven?

Wouldn’t it have been better for Hamas to invest the human and financial capital—which it squandered on building up its military abilities and digging tunnels—in developing Gaza, its people, its buildings and its streets? It has already been proven that [Hamas’s] military abilities can cause Israel no more than very superficial harm, and certainly cannot defeat it, and the evidence for that is [now] clearly in front of us.

The destruction caused by Hamas to Gaza will not end even if Israel’s war on Gaza does stop. The destruction will continue, as is evident from the “glorious” history of our [Palestinian] organizations. This devastation does not bode well, contrary to the assumptions of those who delude themselves that [they are] winning. It will be another in a long chain of [devastating developments] that will last years and lead to geographic, topographic and demographic changes in the Gaza Strip, in the short term and the long one.

Congratulations to the leaders of Hamas for what they have done in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem. The path is obvious and clear: The devastation will be followed by [people] fleeing, migrating and living in misery and suffering, both in the Strip and outside it, and whoever does not become a refugee [in his homeland], will migrate. Many are now thinking of migrating, after Hamas has caused them to lose everything that was meaningful in their lives. [But this is only] providing they can find a way to migrate and leave the Strip or the West Bank, for the propagandists of fake [Palestinian] patriotism and [Arab] nationalism will prevent them [from doing so], and leave them in their current situation, just as [other] Palestinian refugees remained refugees for decades, trapped in the camps of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.  

Thanks to Hamas for turning us into a new refugee enterprise—providing we even manage to survive after it has destroyed our souls. Does Hamas not deserve all these curses, now that it has led the Palestinians to perdition and turned them into fuel for the flames [of war]?

Dec. 26, 2023 article

Let me borrow the Japanese word “kamikaze”—suicide [warriors]—and use it in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, even though the two cultures use this concept in different ways. This word may be applicable to the Palestinian reality today, after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack against the [Israeli] localities on the Gaza border, which was the crowning glory of its record of military operations—operations that, judging by their outcomes were suicide missions, and which were meant to liberate Palestine and establish a national or Islamic state …

The kamikaze [pilots] did not help Japan win World War II. After the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on it, Japan was defeated. It surrendered and declared it would abandon all military action.

Palestine’s kamikaze [warriors], who started operating about a century ago and demanded the liberation of this land, lost about half of it in 1948, and later, in 1967, lost all the rest. Then they brought devastation and disintegration upon the Palestinians, until they finally destroyed the Gaza Strip over the heads of its people after Hamas’s kamikaze attack against Israel on Oct. 7.

Now that we have reached this level of devastation and lost the homeland and everything in it, the question is: Will the Palestinian factions…learn from the experience of the Japanese, follow their example, renounce armed action and distance themselves from militarism, which has not yielded anything and will not do so in the future, given the power relations [between the sides]? These factions and their operatives, of all persuasions, have not understood [that it is hopeless] and will not understand it in the future, judging by their history, during which they have lost and destroyed everything.

It would be best if the factions [renounced militarism] of their own volition. But if they don’t, I hereby call on the international community and the Arab world to act to eliminate the Palestinian factions in their military and non-military forms, including their civil, social, economic and media [bodies], and to arrest all their leaders, close their centers and stop all their activity, so that the Palestinians are rid of them and their harm and can start blazing a new, straight path for themselves, far from destruction, killing and devastation.

Originally published by the Middle East Media Research Institute.