Palestinians, and, Israelis, protest, war, in, Gaza. A combined photo shows Palestinians in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, and Israelis in Jerusalem calling for an end to the war between Israel and Hamas on March 26. Jehad Alshrafi/Menahem Kahana/AP/Getty Images
As the longest and deadliest war of a decades-long struggle between Israelis and Palestinians drags on, peoples on both sides of the fight have increasingly taken to the streets in hopes of bringing an end to the violence.
The protests that have taken place over the past week in Israel and the Gaza Strip, while simultaneous, have their individual, often diverse aims. But both share the capacity to challenge their respective leaderships.
The two belligerents to a war that has raged on for nearly a year and a half also seek to weaponize the other's unrest. And neither indicate any sign of relenting in the face of public discontent.
Israel's Internal Crisis
In Israel, Defense Minister Israel Katz even cheered on the rare manifestation of public criticism of Hamas that emerged in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, just as swarms of Israelis took to the street to demand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put an end to the war, secure the release of the 59 hostages held by the Islamist Palestinian group and rescind a controversial judicial reform bill.
Unlike in Gaza, where Hamas' hard-line government has ruled for nearly 18 years, protests are relatively common in Israel.
Netanyahu's government was faced with a massive showing of public discontent upon first proposing the legislation that would grant the ruling coalition unprecedented influence over judicial appointments in early 2023. The protests came to a virtual halt as the nation found unity in the wake of the Hamas-led attack that sparked the current war on October 7 of that year.
But a new wave of demonstrations has arisen amid a series of tumultuous developments. As Israelis, including the families of those still held captive by Hamas were already demanding the government do more to ensure the return of the hostages, Netanyahu, who is currently on trial for corruption, dismissed the head of the Shin Bet intelligence services in the midst of a probe of suspected Qatari infiltration and moved to fire the attorney general as well.
With the judicial reform bill passing the final vote in the Knesset on Thursday, Yair Fink, a former Labor party candidate who participated in the latest protests against the judiciary reforms, argued that the country's democracy was at stake.
"I think that it's really important to fight against our enemy, and specifically against Hamas and Hezbollah, but I also think that after we fight against our enemy, we need to guarantee Israel's future as a democracy," Fink, who recently served in the Israel Defense Force's (IDF) reserves, told*Newsweek*on Wednesday.
"Today, under a very extreme government, democracy is not guaranteed here in Israel," Fink said. "So, I want my children to live in a Jewish and a democratic country, and we're fighting to ensure this."
But Netanyahu has proved himself to be one of the Israel's most resilient leaders. After coalescing with ultranationalists to establish the nation's furthest right government in late 2022, the former special forces commando who had already become Israel's longest serving premier largely deflected criticism over the intelligence blunder of October 7, 2023.
"The protests are a challenge to the government, but not as serious a challenge as the protests against the judicial overhaul in the spring of 2023," Michael Koplow, chief policy officer at the Israel Policy Forum, recently told Newsweek. "Then, Netanyahu was attempting something revolutionary and unpopular and also had to worry about public pressure fracturing his coalition at the outset of his term."
"Now, Netanyahu has successfully kept his government together through the shock of October 7, massive discontent over the refusal of ultraorthodox Israelis—whose parties are in his coalition—to serve in the IDF, public opinion being against returning to war in Gaza and instead prioritizing the fate of the hostages, and he just passed a budget that removes the threat of the government falling," Koplow said.
He added: "Netanyahu is far less sensitive to public opinion and protests than he was then, and his partners seem determined to carry out the policies they want, irrespective of what Israelis think."
Tsach Saar, who serves as Israel's deputy consul general in New York, argued that the protests rocking his nation were more a symbol of strength than fragility.
"Israel is a dynamic and vibrant democracy," he said. "Just like the United States, people have the right to speak out and express their views, and of course, there will be disagreement, like in any healthy democracy. And I think it's a sign for our strength, not for weakness or division, the fact that we have the capability to have this kind of public discussion that is very, very emotional and very strong in a relatively peaceful way and not violent."
He also took note of the unique position of the families of hostages still held by Hamas, arguing "they have every right to say anything they want, because what they have endured is unimaginable."
Some of these family members have engaged in protests calling on Netanyahu to do more to secure the release of their loved ones. After Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, released a video on Monday depicting two Israeli hostages, one of their families issued a statement calling on Netanyahu and Trump to "please, imagine this is your son, the father of your grandchild, waiting to see daylight, hearing IDF bombs, and living in constant fear for his life."
"It's time to end the suffering not only of the families but of an entire nation that wants them home," the statement, shared with Newsweek by the Israeli Hostage and Missing Families Forums on Monday, said.
After a new Hamas hostage video was released on Saturday, another statement was shared on behalf of Iair Horn, who was freed last month amid the ceasefire and continues to campaign for the release his brother, Eitan, still in Gaza.
"We've returned to fighting that endangers all the hostages," the statement said. "I was there, I'm telling you, I heard tanks passing above me, I ran through tunnels during bombings, I pulled Eitan by the arm when he had no strength to move anymore—I shouted to him 'I'm not leaving you here!'"
Hamas' Homefront
While recent polling shows confidence in Netanyahu's coalition sinking to 27 percent, according to a poll aired Friday on Israel's Channel 12, and support for Israel among citizens of its closest ally, the United States, at a record low of 46 percent, according to a Gallup survey published Thursday, public opinion in Gaza is far harder to discern.
But the latest report issued in September by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, a prominent and nonpartisan institution, showed a severe slip in satisfaction with Hamas.
The group still received a 61 percent majority of Palestinian backing for its war performance, but this was split between an overwhelming 75 percent from the West Bank, which is currently divided between growing Israeli occupation and the waning control of the Palestinian National Authority (PA), and a far lower 39 percent in Gaza. The figure in Hamas' home turf showed a massive 25 percent drop in satisfaction since the previous survey held in June.
When protesters calling for an end to the war braved Israeli bombs to also declare that "Hamas does not represent us" earlier this week, Israeli officials reveled in the opportunity to channel grievances against the group's nearly 18-year reign in Gaza.
"We see, finally, some people in Gaza are brave enough to organize and to say what they think," Saar said. "It's just the beginning. It's not very wide, but it just means that Hamas is starting to lose its grip, and maybe I'm trying to be hopeful and optimistic, if we manage to find a replacement for Hamas, even in an interim time, there may be hope, and also the people in Gaza, they deserve to live in peace."
Saar accused the group of pursuing a policy not in line with the interests of the Palestinian people, namely by "using their own people as human shields and using hospitals and schools and mosques to hide piles of missiles or using it as command centers," as well as smuggling humanitarian assistance.
Hamas has denied such allegations and the Al-Qassam Brigades dismissed the recent protests as being orchestrated by "agents" of Israel.
Hamas Political Bureau member and spokesperson Basem Naim offered Newsweek an exclusive insight into the group's reaction to the demonstrations that garnered international headlines.
"Regarding the people's participation in demonstrations, our position is:
All people have the right to cry out in pain and raise their voices against the aggression against our people," Naim told Newsweek. "Whether our people have taken to the streets or not, we are part of them, and they are part of us."
Naim also issued a warning to those he felt were portraying the protests as an affirmation of Israel's approaching, saying that "it is unacceptable and reprehensible to exploit these tragic humanitarian conditions, whether to advance dubious political agendas or to absolve the criminal aggressor, the occupation and its army, of responsibility.
"We say to those with dubious agendas," Naim said, "Where are they when it comes to the killing, displacement, destruction and annexation of land taking place in the West Bank around the clock? Why don't they protest there against the aggression or allow people to take to the streets to denounce it?"
He took particular aim at Israel's premier, Arabic language spokesperson Colonel Avichay Adraee and defense minister, while also casting suspicion on the intention of the PA in the de facto West Bank capital of Ramallah.
"How can these demonstrations be innocent when Netanyahu, Avichay Adraee and Israel Katz praise them and call on people to take to the streets? By the way, only hundreds took to the streets in specific locations, representing no more than 1-2 percent of the population," Naim said.
"Today, no marches took to the streets, despite numerous calls for people to take to the streets, especially from security personnel in Ramallah," he added. "This is despite the fact that for 17 months, they have been suppressing any march that takes to the streets in solidarity with Gaza or in rejection of the occupation and settlements in the West Bank."
Meanwhile, despite suffering massive casualties, including the loss of its core leadership, Hamas remains operationally capable in Gaza, where the group continues to rely on strategic alliances with other armed factions, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
"Realistically speaking, Israel cannot eradicate the deeply entrenched and popularly supported Hamas from Gaza," Amr el-Shobaky, a political analyst and former member of the Egyptian parliament, told Newsweek. "It must instead try to offer them a political spectrum."
Making Gaza Great Again
Growing discontent over the war could also prove a test for President Donald Trump, who took credit for the ceasefire deal reached days before he entered office in January, only to allow Israel to later defy it with the White House's support. Scores of Americans have also mobilized, particularly on college campuses, to demand the U.S. rescind its long-standing support for Israel.
While thousands had already faced arrest across universities nationwide under former President Joe Biden, foreign students have been subject to detainment and threats of deportation under Trump. Now the U.S. leader who promised to put "America First" and put an end to wars in the Middle East faces growing pressure to navigate the divide between pro-Israel donors and a base that is increasingly skeptical of unlimited U.S. backing for Israel.
Trump's solution would see Gaza's roughly two million people transferred out of the territory in order to establish a "Rivera of the Middle East." The proposal, which may include the U.S. assuming direct control of Gaza, has garnered considerable backlash among the international community, particularly Arab states, whose counterproposal to replace Hamas rule with an interim administrative committee comprising independent Palestinians, has been rejected by both the U.S. and Israel.
Netanyahu has thus far stood by Trump's vision. But even if the protests against Hamas demonstrated a degree of fatigue among Palestinians with the group's leadership, many analysts are skeptical that the demonstrations would serve to advance the U.S. or Israeli agenda in the long run.
"Palestinians in Gaza have been oppressed by Hamas for years and locked into the strip by Israel, and it is difficult to find a clear example of President Donald Trump and his team supporting the Palestinian people and their aspirations, neither in his first term or so far in his second term," Brian Katulis, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Newsweek.
"I doubt the Trump administration will truly care about this," he added, "even if it finds a way to use it in its propaganda and talking points."
Annelle Rodriguez Sheline, a former U.S. State Department foreign affairs officer now serving as research fellow at the Quincy Institute, held a similar view.
"I do not view these protests as vindicating Trump's views of the group or their claim that Palestinians in Gaza would be better off elsewhere," Sheline told Newsweek. "Given that the Trump administration has been in conversation with governments in Somaliland, Sudan, and Syria, all of which struggle with their own conflicts and humanitarian crises, the notion that forcibly displacing Palestinians is somehow the humanitarian solution is ludicrous."
Sheline argued that the White House may find more success in exerting its pressure on its closest ally to find a long-term plan that would satisfy the demands of both Israelis and Palestinians, though she doubted such a strategy would manifest anytime soon.
"Trump could earn a victory by using U.S. leverage to demand Israel accept a lasting solution to the conflict in the form of either a one-state or two-state solution that grants equal rights to Palestinians and Jewish Israelis," she said, "but that is exceedingly unlikely."
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This story was originally published March 31, 2025 at 5:00 AM.