According to a recent report in MEMRI, numerous journalists across the Arab world have condemned Hamas in recent days and called for them to be removed from power.
By Rachel Avraham
According to a recent report in MEMRI, “Around the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 massacre, in which approximately 1,200 Israelis were murdered and 251 were kidnapped, and with the achievement of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, the Arab press published numerous articles sharply criticizing Hamas and its decision to carry out the terror attack, which led to extremely severe consequences for the Palestinians.”
MEMRI noted, “The writers, from across the Arab world, accused Hamas of carrying out a horrific massacre, including against women, children and innocent civilians, and of embarking on an irrational and reckless “military adventure.” The movement, they said, chose to carry out this attack despite knowing it would lead to war and have grave consequences for the people of the Gaza Strip: vast destruction, enormous damage to infrastructure, and the death of tens of thousands. Some even claimed that Hamas had brought a “second Nakba” upon the Palestinians.”
According to MEMRI, “The articles also criticized Hamas’s attempt to claim victory in the war, emphasizing that it has failed to achieve even a single one of its objectives. One article even remarked sarcastically that Hamas’s offensive should be called “the Flood of Defeat” rather than “the Al-Aqsa Flood,” which is Hamas’s name for its war with Israel. The articles noted that during the war Hamas rejected several opportunities to reach the agreement that was ultimately achieved, preferring to preserve its rule. By doing so, they said, Hamas’s leaders prolonged the suffering and tragedy of Gaza’s residents and brought perdition upon them, while they themselves were living in luxury hotels in Doha. The articles called on the Palestinians and the Arab world to hold Hamas accountable for the disaster, and to disarm this movement and prevent any possibility of its remaining part of Gaza’s political future.”
Senior Saudi journalist Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed slammed Hamas in a column he published in the Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat on October 7, 2025, the two-year anniversary of the Hamas attack. He wrote: “…Of course, Hamas is to blame for the collapses and tragedies. First, its attacks were a massacre of massive scale by Palestinian standards, with children, women, and civilians among the targets. It is also to blame for prolonging the tragedy, since it could have made the same concessions more than a year earlier, sparing the blood of tens of thousands of Gaza residents who have perished because of Hamas…”
Al Rashed added, “…To this day, we still cannot understand why Hamas carried out such a large-scale attack – one that was entirely predictable to provoke an Israeli frenzy and the destruction of Hamas and everyone who stood with it…Most likely, Iran was involved in planning and coordination, but was stunned by the horrifying results and therefore chose to withdraw and leave Hamas to its fate…”
In another article several days later, Al-Rashed attacked Hamas for presenting the end of the war as a victory. He wrote: “…The [in Gaza] picture is bleak, the loss of life is horrendous and the destruction is unprecedented in all of Palestine’s wars. So when the cannons fall silent, these groups [i.e., Hamas and the other Palestinian terror factions] will resort to self-aggrandizing propaganda. There is a particular kind of language that has no connection to reality or truth. After every military defeat, instead of reconciling with the wounded society and moving forward, they prepare the lexicon of defeat: they collect phrases of justification and moral reasoning for what happened, legitimize the decision to start the war, rewrite history to present themselves as the victors and promise more [war].”
In his column in the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Palestinian journalist and political analyst Ramzi Odeh likewise criticized Hamas for carrying out the October 7 attack and called to hold it to account. He wrote under the title “Three Big Questions that Must Be Answered regarding the Second Nakba of the Palestinian People:” “There are three questions that remain to be answered… [and] answering them is essential to strengthening the ability of the Palestinian people and its institutions to hold accountable those responsible for what happened on October 7… The first question is: Why did Hamas carry out the October 7 attack when it knew the extent of the damage this would cause to the Palestinian people and to [Hamas] itself?”
According to Al Jadida, “It should be stressed that Hamas was fully aware of the extent of the damage that could result from the October 7 adventure, as it had already been through five wars, one of them [following] the abduction of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006, which led to about 2,000 Palestinians being killed and around a quarter of the infrastructure in the Gaza Strip being destroyed… Despite this, Hamas continued to plan the [October 7] attack for about two years, which indicates that its leadership is influenced by two main factors: First, regional pressures from forces that wanted to use Hamas to strengthen their role in the region, even at the expense of the Palestinian interest, and second, a mistaken gamble that additional fronts against Israel would be opened. This indeed happened, but [only] partially, not to the extent [Hamas] was counting on… What Hamas did on October 7 lacked political rationality and was not backed by sufficient military power to achieve any real gain.”
In an article published October 6, 2025. Egyptian journalist Jamal Abu Al-Hassan wrote: “… Since early this year, Hamas has had several opportunities to reach the same arrangement to which it agreed today: returning the [Israeli] hostages, a ceasefire, and [its] relinquishment of its power and weapons. But its considerations have led it to fantasize that [it can] remain [in power] in any form once the dust of war has settled, and it clung to this nihilistic position and [thereby] led us into a more difficult phase of the war… Hamas became entrenched in rejection and in dragging its feet for one reason only: [its desire] to hold onto [its] power and weapons…”
According to Al Hassan, “The Palestinian people in both the [West] Bank and in Gaza is not part of Hamas’s [considerations]. Its war operations are not bringing a Palestinian state any closer, and are not hurting Israel as much as it thinks… Simply put, the Palestinian people’s situation has gotten worse since October 7, on all fronts… The equation of Hamas’s [considerations] does not take into account anyone but Hamas itself – just as Hizbullah’s equation did not take into account anyone but itself. These militias have become a burden for the causes for which they [ostensibly] fight, and a danger to the civilian population for whose stolen rights they [purport to] bear the banner. We must acknowledge this fact, because it will be the headline for the next phase…”
Walid Toughan, a columnist for Egypt’s Rose Al-Youssef news portal, wrote on October 8: “…The question that must be asked today is: What did Hamas gain from October 7? Surely, it gained nothing but destruction, ruin and thousands of women, children and innocent people killed. Hamas did not achieve any of the declared goals of its October 7 [attack], nor did it achieve [anything] on the political level or on the battlefield… [On the contrary,] it only isolated itself after harming everyone… and gave Israel several excuses and reasons to retake control of Gaza. With its own hands, Hamas took itself out the future equation and lost the popular support of the Palestinians as a resistance movement that steadfastly opposes the occupier. Hamas’s weapons did not bring it the goals it sought.”
In his column in the London-based daily Al-Arab, Lebanese journalist Khairallah Khairallah called on the Arab world to hold Hamas accountable for what he described as a crime against the people of Gaza. He wrote: “Hamas committed a crime against Gaza and its people: it brought about the destruction of the Strip and caused its people to lose their homes. Will anyone ever hold Hamas to account, or will [this] crime be glossed over, just like all the previous ones, including the crime of deepening the Palestinian schism between the West Bank and Gaza and the crime of turning Gaza into an Iranian missile base following Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip in the summer of 2005?”
Photo from Fars Media Corporation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas#/media/File:2013_Izz_ad-Din_al-Qassam_Brigades_exercise_(8).jpg
