With Hamas leadership and terrorists in hiding – often at schools and hospitals to use Gaza civilians as human shields, Israel warns – some Gaza residents are growing more and more bold about speaking out against the failed terrorist regime.
In one video seen by the BBC that was filmed outside a hospital filled with wounded Palestinians, a bloodied Gazan man shouts:
"I am an academic doctor," reports Business Insider. "I had a good life, but we have a filthy [Hamas] leadership. They got used to our bloodshed, may God curse them! They are scum!
"I'm one of you, but you are a cowardly people. We could have avoided this attack!"
Israel has long maintained the taking of hostages, underground tunnels built below hospitals and schools, and hiding among humanitarian camps and children's schools are all hallmarks of terrorists seeking to take cover using innocent civilians as human shields.
That way, the Hamas terrorists theorize, Israel's attacks will only damage their own efforts to retaliate for Oct. 7 by getting the world to back the terrorists versus the Israeli Defense Forces.
Israel has told Newsmax its three stated goals for the war against Hamas will remain achieved, with or without cease-fire deals.
- Return all hostages taken Oct. 7 and since the subsequent war began.
- Destroy Hamas and all its terrorist cells.
- Demilitarize and deradicalize Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has laid out those objectives and remains steadfast they will all be achieved before military operations cease – even as talks of a six-week cease-fire and hostage release comes closer.
Ultimately, the Hamas terrorists and its leader-in-hiding Yahya Sinwar should have known the peril it put the people it had alleged to lead in.
"I pray every day for God to punish the one who brought us to this situation," Gaza resident Mohammed told the Financial Times. "I pray every day for the death of Sinwar."
The use of human shields was intended to build world condemnation of Israel, but it is also finally bringing Gaza dissent, perhaps pushing even one-time supporters to support Israel's destruction of the final remnants of its leadership in hiding.
"They should have predicted Israel's response and thought of what would happen to the 2.3 million Gazans who have nowhere safe to go," Gaza resident Nassim told the FT.
"They [Hamas] should have restricted themselves to military targets."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.