Skip to main content

Hamas gains support, little else in battle with Israel

Many Gazans are now questioning what they first celebrated as a victory for Hamas.

Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
Palestinian supporters wave to members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, during a military parade in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 27, 2021. — SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — With the cease-fire between Hamas and Israel holding amid international efforts and Egyptian brokerage, many Palestinians took to the streets to celebrate the resistance's victory against Israel, but now they are wondering what Hamas actually gained.

Israel's airstrikes on the Gaza Strip started May 10 in response to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad firing hundreds of rockets toward Israel in the wake of the Israeli police raiding Al-Aqsa Mosque and working to displace the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

The escalation killed 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, 39 women and 17 elderly people. The bombing destroyed 2,075 housing units and damaged another 15,000.

Eleven days after the military confrontation, nothing seems to have changed in Jerusalem.

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE

Continue reading this exclusive analysis

Original reporting and analysis unavailable elsewhere. Subscribe to AL-MONITOR to read this story and access everything we publish