‘Freedom, dignity, and a future’: Why Gazans are planning a mass mobilization
Displaced Palestinians protest against the severe water shortage threatening the lives of thousands amid warnings of worsening health conditions and the spread of skin diseases, Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, southern Gaza, 25 May 2026
Muhammad Shehada reports in +972 on 25 June 2026:
In the worn-out tents and overcrowded shelters of the besieged Gaza Strip, a call has crystallized in recent weeks for a mass mobilization to demand residents’ fundamental rights to “life, dignity, and freedom.” The protests, which organizers are planning in more than a dozen locations across Gaza on June 26, will likely attract thousands, if not more, given the deep anguish and despair that grips the entire population.
Egypt-based Palestinian journalist and activist Abdul Hamid Abdul Ati was reportedly the first to call for a “June 26 revolution.” “[This campaign] is for the public interest and to save what can be saved from a reality that weighs heavily on the people of Gaza,” Abdul Ati, a known Hamas critic, wrote. “We are one people, bound by pain and a shared fate … and unity remains the shortest path to protecting everyone.”
It is difficult to estimate the size of what is being termed the “June 26 movement” on the ground, since Abdul Ati and other prominent activists advocating for the protests are based outside Gaza, having been displaced by Israel’s genocide or having left some years before. Some are affiliated with the Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, while others are politically independent.
But public messaging has been carefully articulated to appeal to a broad audience. There is clear resentment expressed by some activists toward Hamas’ political leadership. In the words of Gazan activist and vocal Hamas critic Amjad Abu Kush, “The June 26 revolution is [about] the right of Gazans to end Hamas’ rule … Holding those running Gaza accountable is not a crime.”
Similarly, Gazan journalist Hamza Al-Masri argued that “Hamas should have supported this [June 26] movement. This movement should be joined by the entire population to say we don’t want to die. We’re sick of tents. We’re sick of pain. We’re tired. We want to shout. We want people to hear our cries.”
At the same time, the June 26 movement’s public statements emphasize that “the occupation is our sole enemy,” reject the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, and demand a dignified life, democratic rule, and “restoring a social contract [where] the people’s will is the intrinsic and sole source of political legitimacy.”