Hamas Suppresses Planned 'Day of Rage' Protest
Gazans who attempted to organize a mass protest against Hamas on June 26, 2026, known as the 'Day of Rage,' report that their plans were crushed before they could reach the streets. The protest aimed to demand that the terror group disarm and step down from power.
Multiple dissidents stated in phone interviews with the National Post that smaller protests did occur in some areas, but Hamas security forces forced participants to disperse. Organizers and would-be demonstrators were warned that anyone attempting to join would face violent reprisals.
Growing Opposition Movement Inside Gaza
'What the world doesn’t really know, is that there is a strong opposition movement inside Gaza today that’s developing against Hamas,' said Hadeel Oueis, a U.S.-based Syrian-born journalist and editor of Jusoor News, an Arabic-language outlet covering Middle East news. She maintains a network of contacts in the Strip and helped arrange interviews with dissident Gazans.
'A lot of people are fed up from the war, fed up from Hamas’s wrong choices, and they want to protest,' demanding that Hamas disarm and leave the Strip 'in order to stop the war, to stop the Israeli attacks, and to rebuild Gaza,' Oueis added.
Organizer Details Crackdown
Mohammad Hussein Lafi, a 22-year-old organizer for small local groups in the Deir al-Balah region, said he arrived at a designated gathering point in central Gaza only to find 'it was already filled with Hamas security forces openly displaying their weapons.' He told the National Post that 'Hamas was much better prepared than we were,' having been tipped off.
Lafi reported that cell phones were confiscated from anyone suspected of ties to the protests, and some individuals were physically assaulted and detained. Hamas has 'the weapons, the force and the means to intimidate people. They threatened families, and reportedly paid money to influential clan leaders to publicly announce that they would disown any family member who participated in the demonstrations,' he said.
Background of Dissident
Lafi was about to graduate from the faculty of physical education at Aqsa University in Gaza when Hamas launched the October 7 attacks on southern Israel in 2023. Israel responded with a war that has killed tens of thousands of Gazans, including both combatants and civilians. He now lives in a school-turned-shelter.
Roughly a year ago, Hamas arrested him, accusing him of speaking out against the October 7 attacks to his friends – something he said many Gazans do privately. After being 'severely beaten and tortured during detention,' he became convinced Hamas’s rule had to end.
The opposition movement wants Hamas to disarm, 'so that reconstruction can begin … (and) living conditions can improve,' Lafi said.
Shift to Soft Protests
The public show of defiance officially shifted to a more discreet 'soft protest.' At 10 p.m. on Friday, June 26, Gazans banged pots and pans and whistled for about an hour from inside displacement camps and tents, responding to an online call by organizers, according to Lafi.
Others, independent of the organized plans, corralled an ad hoc demonstration the following day. Video footage embedded in a Times of Israel story showed a funeral procession near planned protest sites, and Lafi told the National Post that mourners carried signs reading 'God willing, Hamas out,' 'We are not pawns,' with chants of 'enough with the destruction.'
