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From Ex-Hamas minister: 'People in Gaza say that Sinwar and his men destroyed us':

According to a Shin Bet investigation, Yousef Almansi, the former Hamas communications minister, criticized the Hamas leadership and its leader Yahya Sinwar, Israel's sworn enemy.

"It's a group of madmen that Sinwar leads. They wiped out the Gaza Strip and set it back 200 years," he says.

“People in the Gaza Strip say that Sinwar and his men destroyed us, we must get rid of them.”

"I haven't seen anyone in the Gaza Strip supporting Sinwar, no one likes him. There are people who, day and night, pray for God to free us from him," he said.

Have any other Palestinian leaders voiced criticism of Hamas? I am particularly interested in those affiliated with the Palestinian Authority or non-affiliated, since they may be potential candidates for the future post-Hamas Gaza government.

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  • Voting not to close - It's a simple question asking if any influential Palestinian has criticised Hamas. This can be answered factually with verifiable source.
    – sfxedit
    Commented Dec 22, 2023 at 19:30
  • Are you looking for someone interested in making peace with Israel? Because "Hamas are incompetents in their attempts to end Israel" is also a perfectly valid criticism of Hamas.
    – Zev Spitz
    Commented Jan 4 at 12:31
  • @ZevSpitz fair point. I am interested in those who have the well-being of Palestinians at heart - this likely implies some form of peaceful coexistence with Israel, but not necessarily a formal agreement. By now ME peacemaking has become somewhat like resistance - a thing that supports itself for the sake of itself, making careers and comfortable living for those involved.
    – Wag the mainstream media dog
    Commented Jan 4 at 12:42
  • @RogerV. What do Palestinians perceive as their own well-being? They may view Israel's existence as so fundamentally at odds with their own value system as to render everything else meaningless.
    – Zev Spitz
    Commented Jan 4 at 12:53
  • 1
    This question is similar to: Did Palestinian leaders publicly condemn October 7th atrocities as immoral?. If you believe it’s different, please edit the question, make it clear how it’s different and/or how the answers on that question are not helpful for your problem.
    – Ellie K
    Commented Oct 18 at 14:11

2 Answers 2

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Have any other Palestinian leaders voiced criticism of Hamas?

PFLP

Lots of "Palestinian leaders" voiced criticism of Hamas, Israel targets these organizations with priority to bolster the presence of Hamas: a militancy unlikely to receive international solidarity.

Rabah Muhanna a senior official in the Popular Front to Liberate Palestine (PFLP) strongly criticized Hamas on Saturday over the way it rules the Gaza Strip since mid June 2007. In a statement to the press, Muhanna accused Hamas of failing to achieve the political partnership with other political factions, and taking exclusive procession of the Strip aiming at imposing its Islamic ideology on the coastal region. - IEMC,

And,

PFLP official Rabah Muhanna was one of many faction leaders who also called upon Hamas to sever relations with the Muslim Brotherhood. Palestine Chronicle

And to the extent that there is an unvoiced criticism,

"We have tried, so let them now try [...] it is their turn." - George Habash

My interpretation is that the PFLP had largely fallen apart, though they still exist and have a functioning militia. And the new form of resistance was both different and not something that would garner support from the PFLP.

Fatah (PLO)

On the other side, lots of the Palestinian elected leaders have expressed disagreement with Hamas. These organizations are largely rejected by Palestinians because though advocating for peaceful reform and discouraging militancy, they've largely gained nothing and only given concessions. Their presence as a functioning government is more of a PR stunt by Israel itself. For example, the PLO cut off funding for the PFLP, and was likely party to or responsible for the assassination of a PFLP member in the Palestinian embassy in Bulgaria.

  • Arafat had the leader of Hamas placed under house arrest, and other senior officials arrested. source.
  • "Nobody will dodge [Hamas's] responsibility. ... We didn’t want or need this war. What was the point? Did Hamas imagine that it could win?" - Mahmoud Habbash
  • Hamas's policies and actions "do not represent the Palestinian people" - Mahmoud Abbas
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  • 7
    I downvoted because you are quoting content from more than a decade back where as the Q is asking about the situation now. Most know that PLO and Hamas have even fought a war in the past. But today (till the war happened) PLO and Hamas were actually in discussion about how they could work together.
    – sfxedit
    Commented Dec 21, 2023 at 19:42
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    @sfxedit But if the quoted people still live it might be that they still hold the expressed views. Even old quotes are better than no quotes. And that's the big problem with this answer, no date stamps given.
    – NoDataDumpNoContribution
    Commented Dec 22, 2023 at 9:15
  • @NoDataDumpNoContribution I'd agree if their views had not evolved, which it clearly has as they were now talking with each other. How relevant are the older views of the PLO founder and the Likud Party founder, to current times, given that they were both once terrorists?
    – sfxedit
    Commented Dec 22, 2023 at 15:01
  • @sfxedit Politics is about matters of policy. The article is two weeks old. If you're looking for current events, this is certainly not the best place to ask. It's also not evident from the question that any specific time frame is required, and I'm not sure what "now" is supposed to mean when things haven't changed. As a matter of policy the PLO and PFLP have not realigned since the Hamas attack. Their alignment with or against Hamas whatever it was before the conflict has not changed. These quotes are still relevant.
    – Evan Carroll
    Commented Dec 22, 2023 at 15:02
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    @EvanCarroll I'm not sure what "now" is supposed to mean when things haven't changed. What has changed is that Israel has now gone from supporting Hamas (to divide the Palestine polity) to declaring it its enemy and invading Gaza. ... Note that the question asks - I am particularly interested in those affiliated with the Palestinian Authority or non-affiliated, since they may be potential candidates for the future post-Hamas Gaza government. Do you genuinely believe that these people will be guided by what they said 10+ years ago, amidst a very different political scenario today?
    – sfxedit
    Commented Dec 22, 2023 at 16:45
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One recent example (according to Israeli Ynetnews):

Osama al-Ali, the Palestinian ambassador to Oman and a member of the Palestinian National Council advising the Fatah movement, sharply criticized Hamas, saying they made a mistake and brought "100 catastrophes on Gaza."

The al-Ali position expressed more specifically is:

"We begged for reconciliation with Hamas from day one because we feared that day (October 7). Hamas led to 100 catastrophes in Gaza," said al-Ali. When asked why the Palestinian Authority remains silent about what Hamas did and even supports it publicly, Osama replied, "The answer changes depending on who is doing the asking. When we talk to Israelis, we will tell them, 'You’re criminals and murderers.' But we will also place responsibility on those who made mistakes and brought about these results in Gaza."

Al-Ali added, "The question that remains unanswered is why Hamas’ leaders left Gaza. Why are rockets launched from Gaza toward Israel when the known launchers aren’t being hit by Israeli missiles? We have many questions, but we’re waiting for the right time to ask them, not right now."

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