As anti-Hamas protests continued in Gaza this week, the Palestinian terrorist group released its first reactions to them, blaming Israel for the demonstrations and threatening punishment for those participating in them.

“Demonstrations are expected from people facing extermination, against war and destruction,” senior Hamas official Basem Naim told the Qatari channel Al-Araby. “People are calling to stop the aggression, but the enemy and other parties with political agendas are diverting the spontaneous protests to serve the occupation’s [Israel’s] agenda and trying to portray it as if the demonstrators are against the resistance [Hamas].”

Naim, who is based out of Turkey, argued that the protests are not actually against Hamas, but rather the Israeli military campaign against the terrorist group in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the so-called “Palestinian Resistance Factions, an umbrella group of militant organizations including Hamas, released a statement from Gaza on Thursday.

In the statement, Hamas, which has fully governed Gaza since 2007, and allied groups in the Palestinian enclave accused the protesters of being “the occupation’s [Israel’s] lackeys.” It went on to accuse activists of “[refusing] to do anything but reveal their shame, their failure, their complicity and their cooperation with the occupation against our people and their cause, insisting on blaming the resistance and exonerating the occupation.”

Hamas also implicitly accused the protesters of being another arm in Israel’s war on the terrorist group.

“After the abject failure of all the plans and projects of the Zionist enemy against our Palestinian cause, whether by eliminating the Palestinian presence, displacement or starvation, and after 17 months of the war of genocide waged by the fascist occupation against our people in the Gaza Strip,” the statement read, “a group of the occupation’s lackeys refuses to do anything but reveal their shame, their failure, their complicity, and their cooperation with the occupation against our people and their cause, insisting on blaming the resistance and exonerating the occupation, ignoring the fact that the Zionist extermination machine is working without stopping even in the areas of security coordination, forgetting that the occupation considers the Palestinian existence itself to be the problem and not the resistance.”

The Palestinian groups then threatened punishment for those involved in the demonstrations.

“Those behind the suspicious movement caused the occupation to back down from its negotiating position in the last few hours because of its reliance on the success of these agents in stabbing the resistance in the back,” the statement read. “Therefore, these suspects are responsible, just like the occupation, for the bloodshed of our people, and they will be treated accordingly.”

Hamas has a history of violently attacking those it considers to be “collaborators” with Israel. Earlier this year, the terrorist group executed 11 people for this alleged crime in what its aligned media termed a “punishment of bullets.”

The difference in approach between Naim — who framed the protests as anti-Israel and anti-war rather than anti-Hamas — and the approach of Hamas and allied groups in Gaza — which suggested the protesters are collaborators or sympathizers with Israel — is rooted in an explicit rift between two factions inside Hamas.

“To clear Hamas’s view of the protests emerging from the Gaza Strip for the third day in a row, there’s a dispute between Hamas abroad and Hamas in Gaza in response,” wrote Palestinian anti-authoritarianism and pro-peace activist Hamza Howidy on X. “Hamas abroad issued a statement asking the militias in Gaza not to touch the protesters to avoid any international outrage and to work on shifting the narrative and the goals of the protests to make it sound as if it was only anti-war protests through their propaganda machines.”

“Hamas’s view in Gaza is a bit different,” Howidy continued, “as they are extremely concerned and even accused the protesters of being the reason behind Israel’s withdrawal from the negotiations and promised to punish everyone participating in the protests.”

Many of Hamas’s top political leaders live outside of Gaza in Qatar or Turkey, and at times they and the terrorist group’s military leadership in the Palestinian enclave can disagree tactically regarding their efforts to destroy Israel.

A document from Hamas abroad reportedly urged the terrorist group in Gaza not to take strong action against the protesters, and instead “to be patient in confronting these demonstrations and to direct them against the occupation.”

It continued, “It is also strictly forbidden to confront these demonstrations in any way, no matter how many slogans are chanted against the movement and the resistance, no matter how intense the slogans are.”

However, there have been reports of death threats and even attempted executions and kidnappings by Hamas targeting those participating in the protests. Hamas officials have also reportedly called activists and threatened them not to join Friday’s protests, which were supposed to be a part of a “Day of Rage.”

Protests against Hamas in Gaza are now in their fourth day. While the specific number of people who have taken part in them is unclear, there have been demonstrations across the Strip, and it appears hundreds of people have attended each one.

The protests have featured anti-Hamas slogans such as “Down with Hamas, we’ve had enough,” “For God’s sake, Hamas out,” “we want an end to the war,” and “Hamas terrorists.”

One Gazan said, “Their rule has destroyed us, killed us, and ruined our lives — and all of us here in Beit Lahia stand firmly to end Hamas’s rule.”

Ahmad al-Masri, a 26-year-old resident of Beit Lahia, where the first protest took place on Tuesday, reportedly said, “Hamas needs to go away,” warning that “if it doesn’t, the bloodshed, the wars, and the destruction won’t stop.”

The protests have garnered the support of university professors in Gaza, who argue they should be able to express their opinions freely.

Gazan clans both in the north and south of the Strip have also come out in support of the demonstrations. The Assembly of Southern Gaza clans released a statement against Hamas, saying, “Enough is enough — a popular uprising against injustice. No more playing with our lives, our children’s future, or disregarding our suffering. Gaza is not anyone’s hostage; Gaza will be liberated by the will of its people.”

Another statement, released by the clans of Shuja’iyya in northern Gaza, read, “We call on you to take to the streets in a popular march of anger rejecting the continuation of the war, and demanding the lifting of Hamas’s control over the Gaza Strip, so that life can return to its people and our ongoing suffering can come to an end.”

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