Support for Palestine rise in Arab world as Israel goes after Hamas

After the shocking Hamas attack on Israel, pro-Palestinian sentiment has increased in mosques, football stadiums, and villages across the Arab world, igniting a groundswell of support for the Palestinians. People have distributed sweets, danced, and shouted prayers in solidarity of the “resistance” to Israel’s protracted occupation of Palestinian territory everywhere from Ramallah to Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, and Cairo. “My entire life, I have seen Israel kill us, confiscate our lands and arrest our children,” said Farah al-Saadi, a 52-year-old coffee vendor from Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. “I was pleased by what Hamas did,” said the man, whose son is in Israeli detention, adding however that he feared the scale of “Israeli crimes in Gaza” in retaliation. The Palestinian militant group Hamas conducted a multi-pronged surprise attack on Israel on Saturday, which resulted in hundreds of deaths on both sides. Israelis have rediscovered their commitment to their country’s cause, while Palestinians and Arabs who support them have joined forces in a comparatively large display of regional popular unanimity. “I do not think there is a single Palestinian who does not support what happened,” said Issam Abu Bakr, a Palestinian official in the West Bank. The Hamas attack was a “natural reaction to the crimes committed by Israel”, which has “turned its back on the political negotiation process,” he added. According to the Israeli government, the Hamas attack has left at least 900 Israelis dead, hundreds more injured, and the militants have seized some 150 hostages. According to the Hamas-run health ministry in the blockaded enclave, 765 people have died and hundreds have been injured as a result of Israeli reprisal attacks on targets in the Gaza Strip. Supporters of the Palestinian cause distributed candy in south Lebanon and the capital Beirut hours after the shocking operation started on Saturday. Israeli forces occupied Lebanon’s south for 22 years, and the two countries are still formally at war. Palestinian resistance warriors, who are “writing the most wonderful, heroic epic,” were praised in mosque chants as Sidon residents lit firecrackers and congregated in public spaces. Reem Sobh, an 18-year-old Palestinian student at the American University of Beirut, addressed the crowd during the demonstration by saying, “We are unable to carry weapons but at least, we are able to support them.” Lebanese comedian Shaden Fakih addressed the surge of support that was heavily criticised in the West on Instagram. “What do you expect from Palestinians? To get killed every day and not do anything about it… to die silently?” she said in a video. “They will carry arms and fight back. This is their right,” she added, noting that she “can be against Hamas and still support any armed resistance against the oppressor, against (Israeli) apartheid”. In the Tunisian capital, schools raised Palestinian flags and a coalition of organisations and political parties have called for massive solidarity rallies. The presidency declared its “full and unconditional support of the Palestinian people” and of their right to resist occupation. In Damascus, the Palestinian flag lit up the city’s opera house. Syrian university employee Marah Suleiman, 42, said the Hamas attack “stirred up a feeling within us that had not been moved for many years, and revived the spirit of resistance”. Palestinians “have nothing to lose after all the killing, destruction and displacement they have been subjected to,” she said. In Egypt, which bans unauthorised protests, football fans turned matches into displays of solidarity, with pro-Palestinian chants. In the war-scarred Iraqi capital Baghdad, Iran-backed paramilitaries trampled and torched Israeli flags during rallies in Tahrir Square. Even Arab Gulf states joined the wave of solidarity despite the US-brokered Abraham Accords, which saw Israel normalise relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in 2020. The two countries released statements relatively sympathetic to Israel, but the popular mood told a different story. Expressions of solidarity with Palestinians filled social media in the UAE, and prominent Emirati analyst Abdulkhaleq Abdulla condemned Israel’s attacks on Gaza as a “campaign of genocide” on X, formerly Twitter. In Bahrain, protesters have covered their faces, some with Palestinian keffiyehs, during near daily, unauthorised rallies. “We will always support our brothers in Palestine,” said a 29-year-old demonstrator, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the authorities. “If we were able to reach them, we would have fought alongside them,” he added. (With agency inputs)