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What the Gaza Protests Mean for Hamas — and Israel
Palestinians protest to demand an end to war, chanting anti-Hamas slogans, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, March 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
Many commentators have withheld judgement as to the significance of the anti-Hamas protests in Beit Lahiya and other towns in northern Gaza. They argue that it is too early to tell.
The protests are undoubtedly significant for several reasons. Complaints against Hamas have now bubbled to the surface, no longer hidden behind closed doors. The preparation of hand-held signs indicates some degree of planning (and therefore, open chatter amongst the populace). The sheer scale, with protestors reportedly numbering in the thousands, is significant in and of itself. That they are prepared to weather the threat of a violent crack-down by Hamas is also telling. It speaks to the frustration, the anger, and the despair.
We need not dwell on these points; they are obvious. Instead, we must consider the subtleties that make these protests highly significant and relevant to strategic planners. They point less towards the protests as an isolated event and more towards the start of a possible process leading to the removal of Hamas.
One protestor has been reported as saying that, “the protest was not about politics. It was about people’s lives.” This distinguishes the protests from Israel’s reasons for removing Hamas, which are political. The distinction is crucial. It differentiates the protestors’ position from that of Israel. And that will energize them and provide them with the justification they need to continue the protests. This is because they can argue that they are not aligned with Israel.
We cannot ignore the fact that for the overwhelming majority of Palestinians in Gaza, the long-standing maxim that “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” is problematic if it means that Israel has become their friend. These are, after all, part of a population that cheered on October 7, and again a year later as they viewed Iranian missiles light up the skies above Israel.
The social nature of the protests is critical in another important respect. The anti-Hamas chants that demand an end to Hamas’ power are undoubtedly political. However, just as uprisings during the Arab Spring demanded the basics of bread, freedom, and social justice, so too here: an end to death and destruction is as basic and universal as it gets. Thus, the anti-war demand gives the protests a social soul. That gives the anti-Hamas political demand the potential to rise above divisive tensions which would inevitably arise if the protest was seen as political. That gives the protest movement more reach within Gaza.
The protests are also telling in another important respect — they fail, and in the future will likely fail, to offer an alternative to Hamas rule of the enclave. What this tells us is that there is no longer a universally held idea of an inviolable Palestinian state amongst those on the ground. No vision of the future; just as long as it does not include Hamas.
How might this play out? No one can say, but these points indicate that this may be the start of a process. Crucially, there is asymmetry. The protestors may not be able to securitize their protests with weapons, but they have one crucial weapon: information. They either know, or know someone who knows, where each hostage is. That gives them the power to rapidly and decisively de-lever Hamas’ negotiating position. And Hamas no longer knows whether the code of silence still holds.
Dan Harris is an international lawyer. He studied politics at Cambridge and now advises many of the world’s most systemically important hedge funds trading geopolitical events. He is also a specialist in boycotts, sanctions and divestment in the financial markets. He has been quoted by many major news outlets, including the Financial Times and the Jerusalem Post and is the author of the Trojan Bourse, analyzing BDS in the financial markets.
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Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen’s Houthis ‘Most Likely’ Intercepted
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
The Israeli army said on Saturday that a missile fired from Yemen towards Israeli territory had been “most likely successfully intercepted,” while Yemen’s Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the launch.
Israel has threatened Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement – which has been attacking Israel in what it says is solidarity with Gaza – with a naval and air blockade if its attacks on Israel persist.
The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group was responsible for Saturday’s attack, adding that it fired a missile towards the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.
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Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel
People attend the funeral procession of Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists and others killed in Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 28, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Large crowds of mourners dressed in black lined streets in Iran’s capital Tehran as the country held a funeral on Saturday for top military commanders, nuclear scientists and some of the civilians killed during this month’s aerial war with Israel.
At least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among those mourned at the funeral, according to state media, including armed forces chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Revolutionary Guards commander General Hossein Salami, and Guards Aerospace Force chief General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
Their coffins were driven into Tehran’s Azadi Square adorned with their photos and national flags, as crowds waved flags and some reached out to touch the caskets and throw rose petals onto them. State-run Press TV showed an image of ballistic missiles on display.
Mass prayers were later held in the square.
State TV said the funeral, dubbed the “procession of the Martyrs of Power,” was held for a total of 60 people killed in the war, including four women and four children.
In attendance were President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior figures including Ali Shamkhani, who was seriously wounded during the conflict and is an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as Khamenei’s son Mojtaba.
“Today, Iranians, through heroic resistance against two regimes armed with nuclear weapons, protected their honor and dignity, and look to the future prouder, more dignified, and more resolute than ever,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who also attended the funeral, said in a Telegram post.
There was no immediate statement from Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since the conflict began. In past funerals, he led prayers over the coffins of senior commanders ahead of public ceremonies broadcast on state television.
Israel launched the air war on June 13, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
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Israel, the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons, said it aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
Iran denies having a nuclear weapons program. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said it has “no credible indication” of an active, coordinated weapons program in Iran.
Bagheri, Salami and Hajizadeh were killed on June 13, the first day of the war. Bagheri was being buried at the Behesht Zahra cemetery outside Tehran mid-afternoon on Saturday. Salami and Hajizadeh were due to be buried on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would consider bombing Iran again, while Khamenei, who has appeared in two pre-recorded video messages since the start of the war, has said Iran would respond to any future US attack by striking US military bases in the Middle East.
A senior Israeli military official said on Friday that Israel had delivered a “major blow” to Iran’s nuclear project. On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Israel and the US “failed to achieve their stated objectives” in the war.
According to Iranian health ministry figures, 610 people were killed on the Iranian side in the war before a ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday. More than 4,700 were injured.
Activist news agency HRANA put the number of killed at 974, including 387 civilians.
Israel’s health ministry said 28 were killed in Israel and 3,238 injured.
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Pro-Palestinian Rapper Leads ‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at English Music festival
Revellers dance as Avril Lavigne performs on the Other Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
i24 News – Chants of “death to the IDF” were heard during the English Glastonbury music festival on Saturday ahead of the appearance of the pro-Palestinian Irish rappers Kneecap.
One half of punk duo based Bob Vylan (who both use aliases to protect their privacy) shouted out during a section of their show “Death to the IDF” – the Israeli military. Videos posted on X (formerly Twitter) show the crowd responding to and repeating the cheer.
This comes after officials had petitioned the music festival to drop the band. The rap duo also expressed support for the following act, Kneecap, who the BCC refused to show live after one of its members, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – better known by stage name Mo Chara – was charged with a terror offense.
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