Hamas: Life in Gaza “Wonderful”

A declaration by Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh that life in Gaza is “wonderful” touched off a storm of outrage on Palestinian social media.

“Gaza is more stable and secure than [Yehudah and Shomron]. Life in Gaza is wonderful and we are happy with it. Gaza is the city of security, the land of Islam and peace and the land of resistance. There are neither oppressors nor oppressed people in Gaza,” Haniyeh said during a sermon in Gaza on Friday.

Some Gazans didn’t think so. One resident of the Hamas-run enclave named Hussein wrote: “Wonderful is a planet Haniyeh and his people are living on, disconnected from the Palestinian people.”

Another Gazan citizen, Tareq Farra, posted: “Ismail Haniyeh said that life in Gaza is wonderful, ignoring all the problems of poverty and unemployment.”

Hamas itself has been a major impediment to the reconstruction of Gaza since the 2014 fighting by, among other things, diverting construction materials intended for civilian reconstruction, such as cement, for terror. A report last week issued by Israeli authorities asserted that 95 percent of cement imported into Gaza with Israel’s consent are stolen by Hamas for military use.