1- The battle of the Palestinian people against occupation
and colonialism did not start on Oct. 7, but started 105
years ago, including 30 years of British colonialism and 75
years of Zionist occupation. In 1918, the Palestinian people
owned 98.5% of the Palestine land and represented 92% of
the population on the land of Palestine. While the Jews, who
were brought to Palestine in mass immigration campaigns
in coordination between the British colonial authorities
and the Zionist Movement, managed to seize control of
not more than 6% of the lands in Palestine and to be 31%
of the population prior to 1948 when the Zionist Entity was
announced on the historic land of Palestine. At that time,
the Palestinian people were denied from the right to selfdetermination and the Zionist gangs engaged in an ethnic
cleansing campaign against the Palestinian people aimed
at expelling them from their lands and areas. As a result,
the Zionist gangs seized control by force of 77% of the
land of Palestine where they expelled 57% of the people
of Palestine and destroyed over 500 Palestinian villages
and towns, and committed dozens of massacres against
the Palestinians which all culminated in the establishment
of the Zionist Entity in 1948. Moreover, 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.
2-Over these long decades, the Palestinian people
suffered all forms of oppression, injustice, expropriation
of their fundamental rights and the apartheid policies.
The Gaza Strip, for example, suffered as of 2007 from a
First
Why Operation Al-Aqsa Flood?
Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood
4
suffocating blockade over 17 years which turned it to be the largest open-air prison
in the world. The Palestinian people in Gaza also suffered from five destructive wars\
aggressions all of which “Israel” was the offending party. The people in Gaza in 2018
also initiated the Great March of Return demonstrations to peacefully protest the Israeli
blockade, their misery humanitarian conditions and to demand their right-to-return.
However, the Israeli occupation forces responded to these protests with brutal force by
which 360 Palestinians were killed and 19,000 others were injured including over 5,000
children in a matter of few months.
According official figures, in the period between (January 2000 and September 2023), the
Israeli occupation killed 11,299 Palestinians and injured 156,768 others, the great majority
of them were civilians. Unfortunately, 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. They only lamented the Israeli soldiers who were killed on Oct. 7
even without seeking the truth of what happened, and wrongfully walked behind the Israeli
narrative in condemning an alleged targeting of Israeli civilians. The US administration
provided the 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 Israeli violations and brutality were documented by many UN organizations and
international human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch, and even documented by Israeli human rights groups. However, these reports and
testimonies were ignored and the Israeli occupation is yet to be held accountable. For
example, on Oct. 29, 2021, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan insulted the UN system
by tearing up a report for the UN Human Rights Council during an address at the General
Assembly, and threw it in a dustbin before leaving the podium. Yet, he was appointed in the
following year – 2022 – to the post of vice-president of the UN General Assembly.
The US administration and its western allies have always been treating Israel as a state
above the law; they provide it with the needed cover to maintain prolonging the occupation
and cracking down the Palestinian people, and also allowing “Israel” to exploit such situation
to expropriate further Palestinian lands and to Judaize their sanctities and holy sites. Despite
the fact that the UN had issued more than 900 resolutions over the past 75 years in favor of
the Palestinian people, “Israel” rejected to abide by any of these resolutions, and the US VETO
was always present at the UN Security Council to prevent any condemnation to “Israel’s”
policies and violations. That’s why we see the US and other western countries complicit
Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood
5and partners to the Israeli occupation in its crimes and in the continued suffering of the
Palestinian people.
As for “the peaceful settlement process”. Despite the fact that the Oslo Accords signed in 1993
with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) stipulated the establishment of a Palestinian
independent state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; “Israel” systematically destroyed
every possibility to establish the Palestinian state through a wide campaign of settlements’
construction and Judaization of the Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.
The backers of the peace process after 30 years realized that they have reached an impasse
and that such process had catastrophic results on the Palestinian people.
The Israeli officials confirmed at several occasions their absolute rejection to the
establishment of a Palestinian state. Just one month before Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a map of a so-called “New Middle
East,” depicting “Israel” stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea
including the West Bank and Gaza. The entire world at that – UN General Assembly’s
podium were silent towards his speech full of arrogance and ignorance towards the
rights of the Palestinian people.
After 75 years of relentless occupation and suffering, and after failing all initiatives for
liberation and return to our people, and also after the disastrous results of the so-called
peace process, what did the world expect from the Palestinian people to do in response
to the following:
♦ The Israeli Judaization plans to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, its temporal and spatial
division attempts, as well as the intensification of the Israeli settlers’ incursions into the
holy mosque.
♦ The practices of the extremist and right-wing Israeli government which is practically
taking steps towards annexing the entire West Bank and Jerusalem into the so-called
“Israel’s sovereignty” amid plans on the Israeli official table to expel Palestinians from
their homes and areas.
♦ The thousands of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails who are experiencing deprivation
of their basic rights as well as assaults and humiliations under direct supervision of the
Israeli fascist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
♦ The unjust air, sea, and land blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip over 17 years.
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♦ The expansion of the Israeli settlements across the West Bank in an unprecedented level, as
well as the daily violence perpetrated by settlers against Palestinians and their properties.
♦ The seven million Palestinians living in extreme conditions in refugee camps and other
areas who wish to return to their lands, and who were expelled 75 years ago.
♦ The failure of the international community and the complicit of superpowers to prevent
the establishment of a Palestinian state.
What was expected from the Palestinian people after all of that? To keep waiting and to keep
counting on the helpless UN! Or to take the initiative in defending the Palestinian people, lands,
rights and sanctities; knowing that the defense act is a right enshrined in international laws,
norms and conventions.
Proceeding from the above, Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct. 7 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.
Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood
In light of the Israeli fabricated accusations and allegations
over Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct. 7 and its repercussions,
we in the Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas clarify
the following:
Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct. 7 targeted the Israeli
military sites, and sought to arrest the enemy’s soldiers to
pressure on the Israeli authorities to release the thousands of
Palestinians held in Israeli jails through a prisoners exchange
deal. Therefore, the operation focused on destroying the
Israeli army’s Gaza Division, the Israeli military sites stationed
near the Israeli settlements around Gaza.
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
and that the Palestinian fighters only targeted the
occupation soldiers and those who carried weapons
against our people. In the meantime, the Palestinian
fighters were keen to avoid harming civilians despite
the fact that the resistance does not possess precise
weapons. In addition, if there was any case of targeting
civilians; it happened accidently and in the course of
the confrontation with the occupation forces.
Second
The events of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood
and responses to the Israeli allegations
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Since its establishment in 1987, the Hamas Movement committed itself to avoiding harm
to civilians. After Zionist criminal Baruch Goldstein in 1994 committed a massacre against
Palestinian worshippers in the Al-Ibrahimi Mosque in occupied Hebron City, the Hamas
Movement announced an initiative to avoid civilians the brunt of fighting by all parties,
but the Israeli occupation rejected it and even did not give any comment on it. The Hamas
Movement also repeated such calls several times, but received by a deaf ear from the Israeli
occupation which continued its deliberate targeting and killing of Palestinian civilians.
Maybe some faults happened during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’s implementation due to the
rapid collapse of the Israeli security and military system, and the chaos caused along the
border areas with Gaza.
As attested by many, the Hamas Movement dealt in a positive and kind manner with all civilians
who have been held in Gaza, and sought from the earliest days of the aggression to release
them, and that’s what happened during the week-long humanitarian truce where those civilians
were released in exchange of releasing Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails.
What the Israeli occupation promoted of allegations that the Al-Qassam Brigades on Oct.
7 were targeting Israeli civilians are nothing but complete lies and fabrications. The source
of these allegations is the Israeli official narrative and no independent source proved any
of them. It is a well-known fact that the Israeli official narrative had always sought to
demonize the Palestinian resistance, while also legalizing its brutal aggression on Gaza.
Here are some details that go against the Israeli allegations:
♦ 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.
♦ It has also been firmly refuted the lie of the “40 beheaded babies” by the Palestinian
fighters, and even Israeli sources denied this lie. Many of the western media agencies
unfortunately adopted this allegation and promoted it.
♦ The suggestion that the Palestinian fighters committed rape against Israeli women
was fully denied including by the Hamas Movement. A report by the Mondoweiss news
website on Dec. 1, 2023, among others, said there is lack of any evidence of “mass rape”
allegedly perpetrated by Hamas members on Oct. 7 and that Israel used such allegation
“to fuel the genocide in Gaza.”
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♦ According to two reports by the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Oct. 10 and the
Haaretz newspaper on Nov. 18, many Israeli civilians were killed by an Israeli military
helicopter especially those who were in the Nova music festival near Gaza where 364
Israeli civilians were killed. The two reports said the Hamas fighters reached the area
of the festival without any prior knowledge of the festival, where the Israeli helicopter
opened fire on both the Hamas fighters and the participants in the festival. The Yedioth
Ahronoth also said the Israeli army, to prevent further infiltrations from Gaza and to
prevent any Israelis being arrested by the Palestinian fighters, struck over 300 targets in
areas surrounding the Gaza Strip.
♦ Other Israeli testimonies confirmed that the Israeli army raids and soldiers’ operations
killed many Israeli captives and their captors. The Israeli occupation army bombed the
houses in the Israeli settlements where Palestinian fighters and Israelis were inside in
a clear application of the Israeli army notorious “Hannibal Directive” which clearly says
that “better a dead civilian hostage or soldier than taken alive” to avoid engaging in a
prisoners swap with the Palestinian resistance.
♦ Furthermore, the occupation authorities revised the number of their killed soldiers
and civilians from 1,400 to 1,200, after finding that 200-burnt corpses had belonged
to the Palestinian fighters who were killed and mixed with Israeli corpses. This means
that the one who killed the fighters is the one who killed the Israelis, knowing that only
the Israeli army possesses military planes that killed, burned and destroyed Israeli
areas on Oct. 7.
♦ The Israeli heavy aerial raids across Gaza that led to the death of nearly 60 Israeli
captives also prove that the Israeli occupation does not care about the life of their
captives in Gaza.
It is also a matter of fact that a number of Israeli settlers in settlements around Gaza were
armed, and clashed with Palestinian fighters on Oct. 7. Those settlers were registered as
civilians while the fact is they were armed men fighting alongside the Israeli army.
When speaking about Israeli civilians, it must be known that conscription applies to all
Israelis above the age of 18 – males who served 32 months of military service and females
who served 24 months – where all can carry and use arms. This is based on the Israeli
security theory of an “armed people” which turned the Israeli entity into “an army with a
country attached.”
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The brutal killing of civilians is a systematic approach of the Israeli entity, and one of the
means to humiliate the Palestinian people. The mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza is a
clear evidence of such approach.
The Al Jazeera news channel said in a documentary that in one month of the Israeli
aggression on Gaza, the daily average killing of Palestinian children in Gaza was 136, while
the average of children killing in Ukraine – in the course of the Russian-Ukrainian war – was
one child every day.
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. However, they would not
use such assumption when it comes to the Al-Aqsa Flood event on Oct. 7
We are confident that any fair and independent inquiries will prove the truth of our
narrative and will prove the scale of lies and misleading information in the Israeli side. This
also includes the Israeli allegations regarding the hospitals in Gaza that the Palestinian
resistance used them as command centers; an allegation that was not proven and was
refuted by reports of many western press agencies.
