The terrorist group known as Hamas has long plagued the Gaza Strip but is facing a point of crisis as its influence and support, which was already far from sweeping, continues to drop amid internal pressure to end the war and return the hostages taken during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

“Hamas’s current posture reveals a critical inflection point in its grip over the Gaza Strip,” Joe Truzman, a senior research analyst and editor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies “Long War Journal” and an expert on Palestinian terrorist groups, told Fox News Digital. “By opposing the new aid distribution mechanism, one that is coordinated by the U.S. and Israel, Hamas is signaling that its primary concern is not the well-being of Palestinians but the preservation of its authority.”

Despite the monthslong aid blockade on the Gaza Strip by Israel and the images of starvation, Hamas this week threatened any Palestinian civilians who accept food aid for their families and warned they “will pay the price, and we will take the necessary measures.”

Displaced Palestinians line up pans to collect hot food from a charity food distribution center in Gaza City, northern Gaza, on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. (Photographer: Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Israel and Egypt have limited the flow of goods into the Gaza Strip for the last two decades, and border crossing restrictions have been heavily enforced since the 1980s. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2025.

However, according to a report by the Wilson Center, only a fraction of the population prior to the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks blamed food shortages on external factors like sanctions, while a third blamed the Hamas-run government for mismanagement, while another quarter of the population blamed inflation.

The report also found that nearly half of Palestinian civilians said they had no trust in Hamas’ leadership, while roughly a third of the population threw their support behind the group.

Support is believed to have dropped in the nearly 600 days that followed the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks, and the subsequent devastation brought to the Gaza Strip. 

Displaced Palestinians wait to receive a free meal from a charity food distribution center in Gaza City, northern Gaza, on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. (Photographer: Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“If the new aid mechanism succeeds in improving living conditions for Palestinians, surpassing what Hamas has been able to provide during wartime, it is unlikely to reverse the growing public dissatisfaction with the group,” Truzman told Fox News Digital. “Even an imperfect but externally managed aid system may further expose Hamas’s governance failures, particularly its prioritization of power retention over the welfare of the population. 

“While tangible improvements will take time to materialize, the mere perception that life can improve without Hamas may be enough to shift public attitudes further against the group,” he added.