Recently, counterterrorism expert Dr Michael Barak spoke on a wide variety of issues including Pakistan and Bangladesh’s call for ‘jihad’ against Israel and growing discontent against Hamas in Gaza during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Dr Barak is a senior researcher at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at Reichman University, Herzliya. He also serves as the team leader of the Global Jihad and Jihadi Websites Monitoring Group and the team research manager of the ICT Cyber Desk. In addition to this, he also teaches courses on terrorism and Islamic radical movements at Reichman University.

Arun Anand: How do you look at the current situation in Gaza, especially in the context of what Hamas is doing? We have seen that there have been demonstrations against Hamas recently. So, is there a growing discontent against Hamas? Is it a new thing, or was it always there?

Dr Michael Barak: Regarding your question, recently we’ve seen increasing demonstrations against Hamas, with citizens even calling on Hamas to end the war, to bring back the Israeli hostages, and to stop the war. These demonstrations show that the citizens of Gaza are reaching a breaking point. They are not afraid anymore to criticize Hamas. The humanitarian situation is very bad, and they feel that they have nothing left to lose.

Before the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launches military operations against Hamas, the IDF announces that citizens of Gaza need to evacuate specific regions and have to relocate themselves to avoid getting hurt. So, people in Gaza are constantly being forced to move from one place to another. They’ve had enough. They want Hamas to stop. And because of that, the criticism is growing.

Right now, there are negotiations between Israel and Hamas, with the help of several mediator states like Egypt, and to some extent, Qatar. But Egypt is deeply involved in the mediation. In these negotiations, Hamas wants to show that it’s the “big boss”, the dominant player in the neighborhood, so it doesn’t want to accept Israel’s demands. That’s also because of Hamas’s narrative that what happened on October 7th was a kind of divine victory.

We have to remember that Hamas is an Islamic movement that belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood. I read Arabic, and if you read their scriptures and statements, they constantly quote verses from the Quran and the Hadith. They want to prove to their audience and the Muslim world that they are the Islamic vanguard, capable of defeating Israel – if not in the short term, then in the long term. They describe this war as jihad or Muqawama (resistance). They believe they are serving a divine mission to defeat and destroy the Israeli state. Some Hamas members are ready to die, believing they will become shaheed (martyrs) and fulfil their religious obligation. However, in some other cases, there are Hamas members who try to desert or leave the movement. But they’re afraid because if Hamas captures them, they will be executed.

Also, Hamas has executed several Gazans who dared to criticize it. There is still fear among citizens when it comes to criticizing Hamas. And it’s not just regular citizens – there are also Islamists from the Salafi stream in Gaza who have been vocal critics of Hamas, even before October 7. The Salafi Palestinian stream criticizes Hamas for collaborating with Iran, claiming Iran is not a reliable ally. They also criticize Hamas for continuing its operations that harm Gazan citizens. Hamas doesn’t like this criticism and has arrested many Salafi members inside Gaza, throwing some of them into jail. So, there’s a big dispute between the Salafi stream in Gaza and Hamas.

As for the current situation, we are........

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