In a press statement, the PLO said the youths in Gaza "have fair and just demands to cancel high taxes illegally collected." The PLO condemned Hamas’s “brutal” actions against peaceful demonstrators, including using prods and opening live ammunition, raiding homes, and detaining journalists.

Protests have been organized in the Gaza Strip against the deterioration of living conditions in areas under Hamas’s control since 2007. Hamas accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah Party of being behind the protests.