Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe.

This Friday, we present a third installment of our August mini-series centering on the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza, following a zoom-out conversation with public intellectual Dr. Micah Goodman and a personal account of life in Gush Katif by former Nezer Hazani resident Anita Tucker.

This week, we hear from Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, who shares the perspective of Palestinians within the Gaza Strip and the ripple effect felt there after the Disengagement.

Alkhatib, who left the Strip for the United States as a high school pupil in 2005, leads Realign For Palestine, an Atlantic Council project that challenges entrenched narratives in the Israel and Palestine discourse.

He is an outspoken critic of Hamas, who writes and speaks about Gaza’s political and humanitarian affairs at a variety of international media outlets.

We hear about Alkhatib's childhood in Gaza City and the few experiences he had with the Jewish Gush Katif residents. We learn about how, at age 17, Alkhatib became one of the first Palestinians to receive asylum in the US following the rise of Hamas in the Strip.

Alkhatib describes the seeds of Hamas and how it became emboldened through the tacit encouragement of Israel. Today, he says, the terror group is so entangled with the civilian population that uprooting it is virtually impossible without any other alternative on the horizon.

He looks back at the wasted opportunity of the Disengagement. "This is a thread that we had and could have grabbed onto and done something with," he tells The Times of Israel.

Friday Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: Palestinian police set up Palestinian and Fatah flags on top of a synagogue in the former Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim in the southern Gaza Strip, September 12, 2005. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)

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