Hamas: 7 October was necessary to confront Israel’s plans
Hundreds of people gather in front of the Gar edu Nord building, marched to Place Jean Rey Square to protest against Israeli attacks over Gaza and to show their support for Palestinian people in Brussels, Belgium on January 21, 2024. [Dursun Aydemir – Anadolu Agency]
Hamas said yesterday that the 7 October resistance operation on Israel was a “necessary step” to confront the Israeli plans aimed at “liquidating the Palestinian cause”.
In an 18-page report on the attack, released in Arabic and English, the movement said the Palestinian people’s struggle with the Israeli occupation and colonialism did not begin on 7 October 2023, but with 30 years of British colonialism and 75 years of Zionist occupation.
The Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, it explained, “was a necessary step and a normal response to confront all Israeli conspiracies against the Palestinian people and their cause. It was a defensive act in the frame of getting rid of the Israeli occupation, reclaiming the Palestinian rights and on the way for liberation and independence like all peoples around the world did.”
On 7 October, Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israeli army sites and towns and villages near the Gaza Strip, capturing some 240 prisoners of war.
In its document, Hamas denied Israeli reports claiming it had targeted civilians during the attack, and stressed that “avoiding harm to civilians, especially children, women and elderly people is a religious and moral commitment by all the Al-Qassam Brigades’ fighters. We reiterate that the Palestinian resistance was fully disciplined and committed to the Islamic values during the operation.” Adding that “the resistance does not possess precise weapons” and therefore some civilians may have been injured “accidently and in the course of the confrontation with the occupation forces.”
As attested by many, the Hamas Movement dealt in a positive and kind manner with all civilians who have been held in Gaza.
Calling for “the immediate halt of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, the crimes and ethnic cleansing committed against the entire Gaza population,” it added: “The Israeli occupation’s use of the “self-defence” pretext to justify its oppression against the Palestinian people is a process of lie, deception and turning the facts. The Israeli entity has no right to defend its crimes and occupation but the Palestinian people who have such right to oblige the occupier to end the occupation.”
It said it rejects international and Israeli plans to decide “the future of Gaza”, which according to its assertions, “only serve to prolong the occupation.”
“We urge for standing against the Israeli attempts to cause another wave of expulsion – or a new Nakba.”
Since 7 October, Israel has killed more than 25,000 Palestinians in Gaza and injured more than 60,000. Settler violence in the occupied West Bank has also increased, with 358 Palestinians killed since the aggression on Gaza began, this includes 91 children.
SOURCE: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240122-hamas-7-october-was-necessary-to-confront-israels-plans/