GAZA (JNI) — Gazans say that a culture of militancy promoted by Hamas has grown beyond control, feeding wanton shootings.
“This long war has normalized violence among youth and children,” a Gazan woman told Jusoor News. “Firing shots in the air has become a common occurrence in Gaza.”
Hamas’s armed parades, its deployment of gunmen against protesters, and its kneecappings of critics make it Gaza’s most visible armed presence — but Gazan sources also describe a broader proliferation of weapons beyond militant ranks. At a funeral last week for young men reportedly killed by Hamas gunmen, armed relatives of the deceased marched through the streets shouting, “Hamas, we have guns just like you!”
“Anyone who feels they or their family has been insulted grabs a gun,” an older man told Jusoor. “The leaders don’t treat people with respect, and regular people don’t respect the leaders or each other.”
Hamas itself seems to be worried that tribal feuds may be undermining its authority. The Hamas-controlled Khan Younes police, in a statement published Thursday on social media, said that they “will not give an inch to any upstart who tries to use guns to impose the law of the jungle.” The “Home Front” Telegram channel, one of several run by Hamas, wrote the same day: “Do not be divided by tribe or neighborhood, because any gun raised against your neighbor or brother is a criminal weapon.”
Politics aside, some Gazans worry that gunplay has become entrenched in local culture, with sometimes lethal results. “At every family event, celebration, or school graduation, people brandish guns like it’s nothing, shooting into the air with gusto,” a Gaza woman told Jusoor. The shooters “don’t think about how life in Gaza has changed,” another woman said. “We used to live in houses but now we’re all in tents … someone can be sitting in their tent and a bullet falls on them.”
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Moumen Al-Natour, a political activist who fled Hamas’s rule in Gaza during the war, says that the group’s ideology created a culture of violence that needs to be uprooted entirely. “When I was a child, I remember my Islamic studies teacher telling us, ‘Kill a Jew and you will enter paradise,’” he recalled. “If we do not replace these ideas with new ones, we will accomplish nothing.”
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