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Source: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/jan/10/palestinians-must-act-against-hamas-terrorists/
Were the People of Gaza Prisoners of Hamas?
(Washington Times) Gerard Leval - Gaza, which has been free of any Israeli occupation and has been governed by its residents for nearly two decades, has been a hotbed of hatred for Israel and its Jewish population. Instead of focusing on the welfare of their fellow citizens, those governing Gaza have focused their energy on attempts to destroy their neighbors and have been teaching their young to do the same. It would be comforting to think that, as the mainstream media often portrays, the people of Gaza are prisoners of Hamas and that the acts perpetrated against Israel and its citizens are aberrational - the crimes of a few terrorists. Recent events inform us of the opposite. Reports regarding the comportment of Gaza residents strongly suggest tacit if not express complicity by many and perhaps by the preponderance of the Palestinians there with the vicious actions and intentions of the Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. Many of the attackers had maps prepared by Palestinians who had been working for Jewish residents. These people had been invited into the homes of Israelis to work at jobs paying salaries that permitted them to live far better than the average Palestinian in Gaza. But sheer hatred made them the instruments of the destruction of the very people who had welcomed them. When other "innocent" Palestinians saw that Hamas terrorists had broken into Israel, they chose to join the effort and to help themselves to whatever they could find in the villages that had been attacked. Other Palestinians joined the fray to seize hostages, while many who did not enter Israel cheered those who had done so. Mia Schem, a young Israeli hostage, said she was held in Gaza not by Hamas terrorists but by a Palestinian family. She said, "everyone there were terrorists....Entire families are in the service of Hamas."