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Media’s Favorite Gaza Source Attacks Protestors for Rallying Against Hamas
A Palestinian Hamas terrorist shakes hands with a child as they stand guard as people gather on the day of the handover of Israeli hostages, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
In the largest anti-Hamas demonstrations Gaza has seen in years, thousands of Palestinians have taken to the streets over the past week. Protesters in the north of the Strip — particularly in Gaza City — have chanted “Hamas out” and “Hamas are terrorists,” while holding banners that read, “Hamas does not represent us.”
Hamas has responded with predictable brutality.
According to reports from local activists, at least six protest organizers have been executed. Others were tortured and dumped in public areas as a warning.
The family of 22-year-old Oday Nasser Al Rabay says Hamas kidnapped him and later left his body on their doorstep, with witnesses reportedly describing how he was beaten with metal rods and dragged by a rope tied around his neck.
Oday Nasser Al Rabay
This is the cost of dissent in Gaza. And yet Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah — the British-Palestinian surgeon celebrated by Western media and recently elected Rector of the University of Glasgow — has made it clear he stands with the torturers, not the tortured.
In an Arabic-language interview with Russian state-controlled media RT, Abu-Sittah dismissed the protests as “a type of psychological warfare against the resistance in Gaza.” He claimed they were orchestrated by the Palestinian Authority and denounced them as “a betrayal and treachery.” According to Abu-Sittah, those risking their lives to speak out against Hamas have “stabbed the resistance in the back.”
Apparently, opposing a UK-designated terror group in Gaza is now “treachery” in the eyes of Glasgow’s rector.
He even mocked the scale of the protests, insisting they were smaller than the crowds who “used to come out every time there was a prisoner exchange” — a disturbing comment, since such exchanges involved Hamas trading brutalized Israeli hostages for convicted terrorists. One can reasonably infer Abu-Sittah was among the celebrants.
When pressed by the interviewer about possible alternatives to Hamas rule, Abu-Sittah snapped that the Palestinian Authority should focus its attention on the West Bank, pointedly rejecting the idea of any political solution in Gaza that doesn’t include Hamas. In other words, better to let Gazans suffer under Hamas tyranny than consider a future without it.
The mask is off.
Western media — especially in the UK — have given Abu-Sittah an uncritical platform for over a year and a half, treating him as a neutral humanitarian, a credible expert, and a moral authority.
Dr. Abu-Sittah has made his position clear: he sympathizes with Hamas.
The media can stop pretending now. Stop pretending that a medical degree and a British university title make someone a voice of reason. Abu-Sittah is not a hero. He is not a humanitarian. He is not even neutral.
He is spouting propagandist for Hamas. And that is the only thing the media should be saying about him.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Media’s Favorite Gaza Source Attacks Protestors for Rallying Against Hamas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.