Protesters were rallying under the slogan “We want to live” — the same slogan used in the last round of protests in March-April 2019. The demonstrations have been organized by an anonymous Instagram account under the name “Al-Virus Al-Sakher,” or “The Mocking Virus,” which has 160,000 followers. Various anti-Hamas activists in exile have joined the campaign, urging Gazans to take to the streets and demand a better standard of living.
Given the near-complete absence of free media in the Strip, it is difficult for outside analysts to gauge how many people participated in the latest round of protests. According to videos circulating on social media, numbers seemed to be significantly larger in the first demonstration than in the second, when Hamas’s security apparatus adopted preventive measures. READ MORE