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On June 16, 2023, the Palestinian Authority's Awda TV channel aired a video warning against a Hamas coup in the West Bank and accusing Hamas of being corrupt, of brutality, and of entrenching poverty in the Gaza Strip. The video described the 2006 election in Gaza after which Hamas launched a violent crackdown against Fatah, and it features archival footage of a senior Hamas official who spoke about "the day that we cleansed Gaza from the rats, mice, and heretic atheists" and about proceeding to Ramallah, cleansing Palestine and banishing the "atheist heretics [...] one dog at a time." It also featured a video of senior Hamas official Fathi Hamad saying: "There is no reconciliation with atheism, or any rule apart from the rule of Islam." In addition, the video accuses Hamas in Gaza of abandoning the "resistance", of depending on grants from Qatar approved by Israelis security, of corruption, and of brutality towards the people of Gaza.
Narrator: "If you are asking: 'What has the resistance achieved in the 15 years since Hamas won the parliamentary elections?' – that is an excellent question. In order to answer your question, take a pen and a clean sheet of paper – you are about to start a journey that you might not forget.
"On January 25, 2006, the people elected the Hamas movement, which won the majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. The people elected Hamas because it adopted resistance. From that time to this very day – what has that resistance achieved? The resistance in 15 years."
Masked Hamas speaker: "Let's start, with Allah's help."
Narrator: "What did Hamas do, when it won the 2006 elections? It formed a group from within the Al-Qassam Brigades and called it the 'Operational Force,' which was responsible for killing people and dragging their bodies in the streets during the coup."
Onscreen text: "Poverty. Electricity. Water. Taxes. No liberties."
Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh: "We provided the people with a mighty army."
Narrator: "The Al-Qassam Brigades gave its war a religious title – they claimed to wage war against the heretic and apostate atheists."
Hamas official: "We took spoils from the heretic atheists, on the day that we cleansed Gaza from the rats, mice, and heretic atheists, the day we banished every single heretic."
Senior Hamas official Fathi Hamad: "There is no reconciliation with atheism, or with any path other than that of Islam."
Narrator: "To what have the Palestinians in Gaza been turned by the 'resistance'? People who queued to join the fighters and rebels are now queuing, hungry, to receive the Qatari allowance."
Man 1: "The most I got in 13 years is $100, that's all. Thirteen years of wars, problems, sorrow, worries, as well as the destruction of my future and that of my children and grandchildren – and all this for what? To sit at home and wait to receive $100 of [Qatari aid]. I put my trust in Allah."
Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh: "We are building and accumulating power."
Narrator: "The 'resistance' has monopolized trade and turned into a bunch of contractors. Its leaders have become merchants, plundering millions from the citizens' pockets."
Onscreen text: "One of the most bitter periods experienced by the people of Gaza."
Woman 1: "The son of a Hamas official who is 20 years old has a car, a jeep, and a building, while my children have nothing. Where is justice? Is this how [Yahya] Sinwar and Haniyeh rule us?"
Onscreen text: "Hamas' prisons."
Narrator: "One of the most important achievements of the Al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza was the arrest and torture of thousands of young and old people, women, and children, during the [2019] popular 'We Want to Live' protests."
Woman 2: "My son is being beaten and tortured in prisons."
Man 2: "You are Iranians. You are from Iran. Is this what Iran has taught you, you spiteful people?"
Man 3: "Oh Sinwar, look at this!"
Woman 3: "I was beaten on the street."
Man 3: "May Allah curse you, oh Hamas! May Allah curse the day on which we elected you, oh Hamas, we regret that every single day!"
Narrator: "Do you want more? Every month, the Al-Qassam Brigades await their wages, that come from the Ben Gurion airport, and are approved by the Shin Bet, and then handed over to the 'resistance fighters.'"
Hamas official: "I bring you glad tidings, oh Ramallah, about the return of the Al-Qassam Brigades that will cleanse Palestine in its entirety an banish the atheist heretics from the Muqata'a Compound, one dog at a time. We will not leave a single one of them."
Onscreen text: "The coup goes on."
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