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** Palestinians Weigh In: The Real Reason Hamas Wants To 'Sacrifice' Them ([link removed])
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • June 9, 2025 at 5:00 am
* Like most senior Hamas leaders, [Khalil] al-Hayya and his family members live outside the Gaza Strip, having fled the Gaza Strip before the October 7 attack on Israel. These Hamas leaders are leading safe, often resplendent lives in Qatar, Lebanon, Algeria, Turkey and other comfortable countries.
* Hamas, [these Palestinians] say, has decided to sacrifice tens of thousands of Palestinians to please its patrons in Qatar and Iran.
* "Khalil al-Hayya's statement of sacrificing Gaza isn't a slip of the tongue – it's the mask coming off. When he says Gaza 'offered itself as a sacrifice,' what he means is that the people of Gaza were handed over...to foreign capitals and thrones... Gaza wasn't 'offered'- it was 'traded.' Traded for relevance in Tehran, applause in Doha, and invitations to summits where men in suits congratulate themselves for their loyalty [to Iran and Qatar] while entire neighborhoods [in the Gaza Strip] are flattened. What al-Hayya revealed – with disturbing pride – is that Hamas has never seen Gaza as a society to build or protect, but as a tool to elevate themselves in the eyes of unelected monarchs and ideological overlords.... to secure long-term contracts of power and protection from the patrons they truly serve..... [f]or the Qatari ruling elite who fund the fire from a safe distance, then host the [Hamas] arsonists as statesmen. Hamas offers Gaza as a sacrifice ... because they know that a
Gaza in ruins keeps them relevant, funded, and feared." — Hamza Howidy, a Gaza-born peace and human rights advocate, X, June 6, 2025.
* "[O]ur lives have been stolen. People in Gaza... are furious. They're asking: how dare he (Khalil al-Hayya) speak in our name while he lives safely abroad with his family in Qatar? His words echo something even more horrifying once said by the late Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh: 'We need the blood of children and women to awaken the spirit of revolution within us.' What kind of ideology is this? What twisted logic allows men living in comfort to turn the suffering of an entire people into a slogan? I can't describe how infuriated I feel right now. I want to smash my head against the wall." — "Alaa from Gaza," X, June 5, 2025 [Emphasis in the original].

"Khalil al-Hayya's statement of sacrificing Gaza isn't a slip of the tongue – it's the mask coming off. When he says Gaza 'offered itself as a sacrifice,' what he means is that the people of Gaza were handed over... Traded for relevance in Tehran, applause in Doha..." — Hamza Howidy, a Gaza-born peace and human rights advocate. Pictured: Al-Hayya speaks on Al Jazeera, in June 2025. (Image source: X.com/Osint613)

On the eve of the Islamic feast of Eid al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice), Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya -- in charge of the negotiations to release the hostages and reach a ceasefire agreement with Israel -- delivered a speech in which he said: "Gaza has offered itself as a sacrifice for the Muslim ummah [nation] and deserves its full support in return."

Al-Hayya's statement triggered a wave of angry reactions and condemnations from many Palestinians, especially those from the Gaza Strip who have been facing death and destruction since October 7, 2023, when Hamas and thousands of "ordinary" Palestinians invaded Israel and murdered 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals. Another 251 people were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, where 55 – dead and alive – remain in captivity.

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