[News] Hamas explains: There was no choice but October 7

[Anti-Imperialist News]

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Hamas explains: There was no choice but October 7
Al Mayadeen English
January 21, 2024
------------------------------

The Hamas Palestinian Resistance movement explains the reasons behind
Operation al-Aqsa Flood from a historical, political, and humanitarian
perspective as it seeks to debunk Israeli lies about the operation.
[image: 8926af66-5aec-49d2-b0bb-4a494145b3ba.jpg]

   - A screen grab from the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas's
   published document "Our Narrative... Operation Al-Aqsa Flood"

Operation al-Aqsa Flood was a necessary step and a normal response to
confront all Israeli conspiracies against the Palestinian people and their
cause; a defensive act within the framework of ridding Palestine of the
Israeli occupation, reclaiming Palestinian rights, and on the path to
liberation and independence like all people around the world, the
Palestinian Hamas Resistance movement said.

Hamas published Sunday a memorandum entitled: "Our Narrative... Operation
al-Aqsa Flood," in which the Resistance movement explained the reasons
behind the October 7 operation and the motives behind it, as well as its
general context concerning the Palestinian cause and a debunking of the
Israeli narrative and the accusations raised against the Palestinian
Resistance.

The Resistance movement explained that there were a plethora of reasons
that pushed it to carry out the operation, including:

- The Israeli Juadization plans for the al-Aqsa Mosque and attempts to
divide it.

- The actions of the extremist and right-wing Israeli government, which is
taking practical steps toward usurping the entirety of the West Bank and
occupied al-Quds amid plans to expel Palestinians from their homes.

- The thousands of Palestinians unjustly detained by the Israeli occupation
and deprived of their most basic rights amid paramount assaults and
humiliation.

- The unjust air, sea, and land blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip for the
past 17 years.

- The expansion of Israeli settlements across the West Bank in an
unprecedented manner.

- The daily escalations and violence perpetrated by settlers against
Palestinians.

- The seven million displaced Palestinians living in horrific conditions in
refugee camps and wish to return to their lands.

- The international community's failure to establish and the complicity of
major powers in preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Hamas argued that the Palestinian people could not be expected to keep
waiting and counting on the United Nations, which it described as
"helpless," saying their only option was to "take the initiative in
defending the Palestinian people, lands, rights, and sanctities." Hamas
underlined that its actions fall into self-defense, which is a right
enshrined in international laws and conventions.
It did not start on Oct. 7

As is being echoed by the supporters of the Palestinian Resistance and
cause alike, Hamas underlined that the plight of liberation did not start
on October 7; "but started 105 years ago, including 30 years of British
colonialism and 75 years of Zionist occupation."

The memorandum clarified that the Palestinian people in 1918 owned 98.5% of
Palestinian land while representing 98% of the population before the
Zionists that were brought in coordination between the British colonial
authorities and the Zionist movement managed to take control of no more
than 6% of Palestinian land when they made up 31% of the population prior
to 1948, i.e., before the declared creation of an "Israel".

"At that time, the Palestinian people were denied the right to
self-determination and the Zionist gangs engaged in an ethnic cleansing
campaign against the Palestinian people aimed at expelling them from their
lands and areas," the lengthy text added.

The Zionist gangs displaced 57% of the people of Palestine and destroyed
over 500 Palestinian villages and towns while committing dozens of
massacres against the Palestinian people leading up to the establishment of
"Israel" in 1948. "In continuation of the aggression, the Israeli forces in
1967 occupied the rest of Palestine including the West Bank, the Gaza
Strip, and Jerusalem in addition to Arab territories around Palestine."

Throughout the long history of the occupation of Palestine, the Palestinian
people suffered all forms of oppression, injustice, and expropriation of
their fundamental rights, Hamas underlined, giving Gaza as an example when
in 2007 it came under a suffocating blockade still in place to this very
day, turning it into the world's largest open-air prison.

The Resistance movement also reminded that: "The Palestinian people in Gaza
also suffered from five destructive wars/aggressions all of which 'Israel'
was the offending party."

The Israeli occupation over decades, in the period between January 2000 and
September 2023, killed 11,299 Palestinians and injured 156,768 others, the
overwhelming majority of them being civilians, Hamas added. Meanwhile, the
"US administration and its allies did not pay attention to the suffering of
the Palestinian people over the past years but provided cover to the
Israeli aggression."

"The US administration provided financial and military support to the
Israeli occupation massacres against the Palestinian civilians and the
brutal aggression on the Gaza Strip, and still, the US officials continue
to ignore what the Israeli occupation forces commit in Gaza of mass
killing," the memo said.

Even commenting on the 1993 Oslo Accords signed by the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) and the Israeli occupation under the auspices of the US,
Hamas underlined that the accords stipulated the establishment of a
Palestinian independent state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the
efforts for which were "systemically destroyed" by "Israel" through "a wide
campaign of settlement construction and Judaization of the Palestinian
lands in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem."

In response to all the injustice, Hamas asked: "What was expected from the
Palestinian people after all of that?"
October 7 aimed at Israeli military

The Resistance movement went on to explain that its October 7 operation
aimed to target Israeli military sites and pressure Israeli authorities for
a prisoner exchange deal to release Palestinians from Israeli jails. The
focus was on destroying the Israeli occupation forces Gaza Division and
military sites near settlements around Gaza.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, emphasized their commitment
to avoiding harm to civilians, especially children, women, and the elderly.
They stated that any accidental targeting of civilians occurred during
confrontations with the Israeli forces.

Hamas, since its establishment in 1987, undertook a commitment to avoiding
harm to civilians. They mentioned initiatives to spare civilians from
fighting, but these were allegedly ignored by the Israeli occupation.

The statement acknowledged potential faults during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood
due to the rapid collapse of the Israeli security system. The Hamas
Movement underlined that it treated positive treatment of civilians in
Gaza, seeking their release during a humanitarian truce in exchange for
Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails.

The Palestinian Resistance backed up its efforts to only target the
military apparatus with numerous pieces of evidence, highlighting that
"Video clips taken on that day – Oct. 7 – along with the testimonies by
Israelis themselves that were released later showed that the Al-Qassam
Brigades’ fighters didn’t target civilians, and many Israelis were killed
by the Israeli army and police due to their confusion."

The claim of "40 beheaded babies" by Palestinian fighters has been firmly
debunked, with even Israeli sources rejecting it. Unfortunately, many
Western media outlets have adopted and promoted this false allegation, the
memo read.

The allegation that Palestinian fighters committed rape against Israeli
women, including the Hamas Movement, has been fully denied. A December 1,
2023, report by *Mondoweiss *highlighted the lack of evidence for the
alleged "mass rape" on October 7, suggesting that "Israel" used this claim
to escalate the situation in Gaza.

According to reports from Israeli newspaper*s Yedioth Ahronoth* on October
10 and *Haaretz *on November 18, an Israeli military helicopter killed
numerous Israeli settlers, including those at the Nova music festival near
Gaza where 364 settlers died. Hamas fighters, unaware of the festival, were
targeted by the helicopter. To prevent further infiltrations from Gaza, the
Israeli occupation forces struck over 300 targets in surrounding areas.

Israeli testimonies confirmed that army raids and operations killed both
Israeli captives and their captors. The IOF's Hannibal Directive emphasizes
preferring a dead captive or soldier over being taken alive to avoid
prisoner swaps with the Palestinian resistance.

Occupation authorities revised the number of their killed soldiers and
civilians from 1,400 to 1,200 after discovering that 200 burnt corpses
belonging to Palestinian fighters were mixed with Israeli corpses. The
Israeli army, possessing military planes, was responsible for the
destruction on October 7.

The Israeli occupation's heavy aerial raids in Gaza resulted in the death
of nearly 60 Israeli captives, indicating a disregard for their lives,
Hamas stressed.

It also added that the death toll of "civilians" was exaggerated by the
fact that many of the Israeli settlers killed during the operation were
armed and fighting alongside the Israeli occupation forces, yet they were
registered as "civilians" upon being killed in action.

"Those who defend the Israeli aggression do not look at the events in an
objective manner but rather go to justify the Israeli mass killing of
Palestinians by saying there would be casualties among civilians when
attacking the Hamas fighters," the memorandum read.
Call for justice

Hamas, casting doubts about the commitment of certain countries, namely the
US, Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom, to justice, the movement urged
the ICC Prosecutor and team to visit occupied Palestine promptly to examine
crimes and violations firsthand, rather than relying on remote observations
or succumbing to Israeli restrictions.

In December 2022, the UN General Assembly sought the International Court of
Justice's opinion on the legal consequences of "Israel's" illegal
occupation, supported by nearly 100 countries, the resistance movement
highlighted. Countries backing the occupation rejected this move, hindering
efforts to prosecute Israeli war criminals through universal jurisdiction
in European courts.

The events of October 7 should be understood in the broader context of
struggles against colonialism and occupation, it added. Similar struggles
demonstrate that oppression by occupiers elicits corresponding responses
from those under occupation.

People worldwide recognize the lies perpetuated by governments supporting
the Israeli narrative, aiming to justify biased stances and conceal Israeli
crimes. These nations overlook the root causes of the conflict—occupation
and the denial of Palestinians' right to live in dignity on their lands.
They also show indifference to the unjust blockade on millions in Gaza and
the plight of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, where basic rights
are denied.

Hamas, at the conclusion of the memorandum, called for an immediate halt to
Israeli aggression in Gaza, accountability for human suffering caused by
the Israeli occupation, support for Palestinian resistance, and solidarity
from nations worldwide against double standards.

The Resistance continued by demanding an end to major powers providing
cover for "Israel", rejecting any decisions made by foreign powers
regarding Gaza's future, and opposing Israeli attempts at expulsion. Hamas
urged continued global pressure to end the occupation, resistance to
normalization with the Israeli regime, and a comprehensive boycott of the
occupation and its supporters.

<https://t.me/almayadeenenglish/619>
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