22 million follow Hamas event on social media

Though the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Hamas’ founders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdul-Aziz Al-Rantisi ended more than 24 hours ago, related hashtags on social media sites are still active.

March 23 marked the anniversary of the assassination of the quadriplegic 70-year-old Yassin by three rockets launched from Israeli helicopters towards him while he was being pushed home on his wheelchair. Around 10 people were also killed in the attack.

The remembrance, which was held in the Gaza Strip, was considered by activists on social media as a referendum on Hamas’ popularity in the besieged enclave.

Israel and Egypt have imposed a siege on Gaza since 2006, when Hamas, the resistance movement which believes in the right of Palestinians to have a sovereign state, won in the general parliamentary elections.

Israel has been trying to push the Palestinians in Gaza to reach a point of suffering that makes them revolt against Hamas’ rule.

However, the numbers that took part in the commemoration and the number of social media users who used hashtags related to it were much higher than expected.

More than 22 million Twitter users from around the world followed the celebration hashtags. Famous Arab politicians, religious clerics and activists were among the social media users who used the hashtags including religious scholars Sheikh Nabeel Al-Iwadi and Sheikh Hamid Al-Ali, both from Kuwait.

The most circulated pictures on Twitter were a landscape picture for the huge number of attendees and that of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Popular Twitter hastags for the event:

• #غزة
  
• #حماس
  
• #أحمد_ياسين
  
• #فلسطين
  
• #مهرجان_حماس