Between cautious optimism and fear, the expectations of the residents of the Gaza Strip varied after Donald Trump won the presidency of the United States against his rival, Vice President, Kamla Harris.
Citizens of Gaza hoped that Trump would fulfill his promise to end the war in the Gaza Strip and bring peace.
A resident of the Gaza Strip stated in an interview with Al-Hurra that Arab and Muslim voters punished the Democrats because of their management of the war in the Gaza Strip, and they voted for Trump, who promised to end the war.
The speaker appealed to Trump to end the war and bring peace to the Strip, while another predicted that the United States, as an influential country, could influence the Palestinian issue.
A woman from the Gaza Strip expressed her fears about Trump’s rise to the presidency, anticipating the worst from Trump and recalling his previous term after he cut off aid to the United Nations Relief Agency for Refugees.
Others expressed their hope that Trump’s victory would be the beginning of a change for the better in Gaza, starting with stopping the war between Israel and Hamas, which turned the Strip into ruin.
The United States is considered Israel’s main military ally, and the elections took place at a critical time in the Middle East, while Israel is fighting two wars with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel vowed to “eliminate” Hamas after its attack on towns in Israel, which killed 1,206 people, most of them civilians. During the attack, 251 people were kidnapped, 97 of whom are still detained in Gaza, and the army says that 34 of them died.
Since then, Israel has launched a concentrated bombing campaign and ground operations in the Gaza Strip, causing the deaths of at least 43,374 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Health run by Hamas and considered reliable by the United Nations.