Haitham Imad/EPA
Palestinians sitting by a bonfire in the rubble of their destroyed home in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The region’s most influential Islamic scholar has issued a fatwa (condemnation) of the October 7 Hamas attack. In September, only 36% of Gazans wanted the group in power.
Salafism is a type of Islam that seeks to apply the practices of the Prophet Muhammad and his followers, explains the .
This is the type of Islam that practices Salman al-Dayah, Gaza’s most influential prophetwhich condemns the violence of Israel and Hamas dissident groups. The news is that, now, the religious academic has also issued a fatwa (a kind of recriminatory “amendment”) to Hamas itself.
“Human life is more precious to God than Mecca”, begins explaining the prophet, quoted by . “If the pillars, causes or conditions of jihad [a “luta” islâmica] are not met, this must be avoided so as not to destroy people’s lives. This is something that is easy for politicians in our country to guess, so the attack must have been avoided”, he said, referring to the.
The prophet even referred to this episode as a “violation of Islamic principles governing jihad”.
But, according to The Conversation, this is just an indication of a much deeper internal rift taking place in Gaza. And data published by the Palestinian institute provides clues about these divisions.
There is a statistic that stands out for its incongruity: when the question was asked, in September 2024, whether Hamas had committed the atrocities of October 7th against the Israelis, shown by the international media, including the murder of women and children, 89% of the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank said no. Only 8% answered yes.
But there is an inconsistency in this belief. The same survey showed that, while in March 2024, 71% of Gazans considered that Hamas’ decision to launch the October 7 offensive was “correct”, in September of this year this percentage had fallen to 39%.
This month, 80% of respondents stated that at least one family member was killed or injured during the war, while 85% declared having moved “from one shelter to another” between two and six times.
There is also a widespread disbelief in Hamas victory: 28% of Gazans responded that Hamas would win the war, 25% said it would be Israel and 45% said “none of them” would win.
Furthermore, the number of people who want Hamas to continue governing Gaza has fallen from 46% in June 2024 to 36% in September, while 37% of Gazans believe the group will effectively control Gaza after the war.
The BBC recalls that, for Hamas, the fatwa represents a embarrassing and potentially harmful criticismamong other things because the group often justifies its attacks on religious arguments to gain support from Arab and Muslim communities.
