Hamas is not yet done with Gaza, despite the beginnings of President Donald Trump’s multi-point peace plan in which the last of the Israelis taken hostage in the terror organization’s war against its neighbor that it launched on Oct. 7, 2023, who still are living were released.
As proof, Hamas just days ago executed some of its political opponents, claiming they had colluded with Israel. Factions also have made statements that they will continue their war against Israel.
But it could be that Gaza now is done with Hamas.
In a telling statement, Khader Mehjez, an academic in Gaza, slammed Hamas.
It was in an interview with Al-Arabiya Network from Saudi Arabia that Mehjez commented, suggesting the terror group’s war with Israel is over.
“I don’t think that it will continue,” he explained. “I believe that Hamas, as a political and military force in Gaza, is finished. It will not continue to exist. Nobody here wants Hamas.”
A report from the Middle East Media Research Institute revealed that he also “accused Hamas of profiting from the war, plundering humanitarian aid and selling it in the market for several hundred times the price.”
“He said that he saw images of Hamas leaders smiling and added that they were happy they had profited from the war they had started,” the report said.
Mehjez called Ismail Haniyeh a “crazy man,” described the Oct. 7 attack as an “act of madness,” and said that the decision to carry it out was made by Yahya Sinwar, “who everybody knows was not normal.”
His comments continued, “If you ask anyone here in Gaza – now that they are released from the terrorism of Hamas – you will get the same answer. Hamas brought this war upon us, and then benefited financially from the war. They would plunder all the [humanitarian] aid. They would sell it in the market for several hundred times its price – not just double or triple the price. People don’t have money. They don’t have cash to buy anything. The people suffered from real hunger. Things were getting worse, and these [Hamas members] did not feel the suffering of the people.”
And, he said, “How can I begin to describe people who brought the war on us and made money off of it? I am angry at these people, whom I see smiling at the camera, as if the people who are being massacred are not their own people, as if this war was not their doing, as if it came out of the blue… They [smile] as if they are happy about this war. I could see the happy smiles on their faces. I interpreted this as happiness for their profits. People die and they are making profit…”
MEMRI also reported that more and more, the “Arab press” was offering criticism of Hamas for its decision to slaughter 1,200 Israelis on that October day, and take hundreds hostage.
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.”
For instance, ‘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.
His comment: “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… 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…”
Al-Rashed later blasted Hamas for claiming victory.
“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].”
MEMRI wrote, “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 said, “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? 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.”
The second question, the writer said, “What goals did Hamas achieve through this reckless military adventure?…” and third is, “Why did Hamas insist throughout the period of aggression [i.e., the war] on sidelining the PLO, despite the urgent need for Palestinian unity?… Hamas made the decision to launch the [October 7] attack on its own, and insisted on managing the campaign far from [any involvement] by Ramallah. It turned a deaf ear to the popular demands and to the regional and international pressures that called for national unity… When it was [eventually] forced to agree to the decision of the Arab summit in Cairo regarding the establishment of a technocratic committee to administer the Gaza Strip, it objected to placing this committee under the authority of the PA. This makes it clear that Hamas fears the PA more than it fears the occupation, because the occupation lacks legitimacy, whereas the PA is the legitimate representative of the Palestinians…”
Another commentary relegated Hamas to a “thing of the past,” and yet another noted the costs of Hamas’ recklessness, “paid” by thousands of innocent people.
“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? There is a need for a clear Arab initiative regarding Gaza. The Strip cannot be left at the mercy of Hamas and its calculations… In the end, the Palestinian reality cannot be repaired without accountability. If the party responsible for the Gaza tragedy isn’t held to account, the disaster may repeat itself…,” wrote Lebanese journalist Khairallah Khairallah.