A Gaza physician whose family was wiped out in the war posted a searing personal message on X accusing Hamas of betraying the people it claims to defend and condemning the destruction that has left him, and much of Gaza, in ruin.

Dr. Az al-Din Shahab, a well-known physician from Gaza City, said in his post that more than seventy members of his extended family were killed and every home in his neighborhood flattened. “Since the early hours of the morning, my family and I have been living through a complete psychological breakdown,” he wrote. “Today we learned that our homes, our land, and our entire neighborhood — every house belonging to our family and our neighbors — have been completely erased. Bulldozed. Flattened into yellow, silent dust.”

In a rare public rebuke from within the enclave, Shahab directly blamed Hamas for what he called a “false narrative of resilience,” accusing the group of sacrificing Gaza’s civilians for propaganda.

“One of Hamas’s leaders appears on television and declares that ‘the people were not defeated,’ that ‘Gaza stood firm and fought a historic war,’” he wrote. “So let history record the following: I, Dr. Az al-Din Shahab of Gaza, along with my family, my friends, and their families — we did not fight in any war. We were the victims of a destruction ignited from within our homes by Hamas, only so that the IDF would powerfully strike Gaza’s civilians, while Hamas’s fighters vanished into their tunnels.”

His post — raw, grief-stricken, and sharply political — stands in contrast to the rhetoric from Hamas leaders abroad, who have cast the ceasefire as a victory. “Let history record the truth: We were defeated. Completely defeated — in pain, in humiliation,” he wrote. “And only we, the residents of Gaza, have the right to say whether we were defeated or not — not those sitting comfortably in Qatar or Turkey.”

Shahab’s words evoke the devastation still gripping much of Gaza after months of bombardment and urban combat. “We were trampled, humiliated, and broken after our city was destroyed, conquered, and erased,” he continued. “We were uprooted from our place and left with nothing, wandering through the ruins of our own lives.”

His final lines were a direct indictment of both Hamas and the hopelessness of civilian life under its rule. “We were not steadfast. We were hostages in our own land. We could not leave. We could not change those who claim to rule over us,” he wrote. “If there is one moment in my life to tell the truth — without fear, without hesitation — this is that moment. Let it be written clearly: We were not soldiers in a war. We were the bodies buried beneath it.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)