GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The armed factions in the Palestinian territories are the parties that are in charge of producing TV series in the Gaza Strip, which are in general of poor quality amid a lack of funding. Despite this, they insist on being present in the TV scene during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, during which Arab series compete for audiences and viewer ratings. 

These productions have now become limited to pro-resistance drama. Producers claim that this is the Palestinian reality and they need to present it to the world through arts, which is nothing but a representation of the people's lives.

The Islamist Hamas movement began producing pro-resistance drama series more than four years ago. It has focused in its series on the resistance against Israel. The latest example is “Qabdat al-Ahrar” ("Fist of the Free") series, which is currently being broadcast on its media platforms and TV channels that are close to its political orientation.

The head of Hamas’ artistic production department, Muhammad al-Thuraya, told Al-Monitor that the series speaks of the psychological warfare and technological tactics used by the Palestinian resistance in the face of the Israeli forces, specifically the Israeli Sayeret Matkal unit that infiltrated into the Gaza Strip in 2018. Back then, the armed factions foiled the infiltration attempt with a firefight that wounded a number of the unit’s members before escaping to Israel.