Jehad Al-Saftawi1 wrote a moving piece entitled Hamas Built Tunnels Beneath My Family’s Home in Gaza. Now It Lies in Ruin:

Since Hamas’s violent takeover of Gaza in 2007, the bustling and beautiful streets I knew have been dominated by terrorist chaos. Hamas is driven by an ideological stand originating in the concept of annihilating the state of Israel and replacing it with an Islamic Palestinian one. In striving to make this a reality, Hamas has continued to normalize violence and militarization in every aspect of public and private life in Gaza. They have in the process obliterated the chances of a successful Palestinian state alongside Israel, even if the prospect of one had increasingly looked dim amid successive Israeli governments that worked against that.

[…]

[Hamas] began destroying my family home in 2013 when they built tunnels beneath it. They continued to threaten our safety for a decade—we always knew we might have to vacate at a moment’s notice. We always feared violence. Gazans deserve a true Palestinian government, which supports its citizens’ interests, not terrorists carrying out their own plans. Hamas is not fighting Israel. They’re destroying Gaza.

The full piece in Time is worth reading.

  1. Jehad al-Saftawi is the author of My Gaza: A City in Photographs and is founder of Refuge Eye, a nonprofit organization which supports refugee journalists. ↩︎