On January 20, 2024 Hamas, the Palestinian Resistance Movement, issued a 16-page document entitled “Our Narrative–Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” that explains their plans and actions.
A second item below contains the reflections by a senior Hamas leader on the attack and its aftermath
This helps to answer the question some Americans ask: Why did Hamas launch the attack?
As Americans read and consider the following, perhaps they will consider an equally important question: Why did we allow our government to enable Israel’s violent, decades-long ethnic cleansing project against Palestinians?
To see the full document and its images, click the PDF here. Below is the document’s text (IAK has bolded some portions and added a few editor’s notes).
TEXT:
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Our steadfast Palestinian people,
The Arab & Islamic nations;
The free peoples worldwide and those who advocate for freedom, justice and human dignity
In light of the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and as our people continue their battle for independence, dignity and breaking-free from the longest-ever occupation during which they have drawn the finest displays of bravery and heroism in confronting the Israeli murder machine and aggression. We would like to clarify to our people and the free peoples of the world the reality of what happened on Oct. 7, the motives behind, its general context related to the Palestinian cause, as well as a refutation to the Israeli allegations and to put the facts into perspective.
Why Operation Al-Aqsa Flood?
1. 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. [Editor’s note: See this]
At that time, the Palestinian people were denied from 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. 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. 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 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. [Editor’s note: See this]
3. 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. [Editor’s note: see this.]
4. 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. [See this.]
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.
5. 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 and partners to the Israeli occupation in its crimes and in the continued suffering of the Palestinian people. [See this.]
6. 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.
7. 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.
♦ 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.
Second
The events of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and responses to the Israeli allegations
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:
1. 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.
2. 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. [Editor’s note: when the barrier that had been imprisoning Gaza for over 20 years was breached, many people not part of Hamas’ trained fighters, including other armed groups not under Hamas, also escaped.]
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.
[Editor’s note: The precursor to Hamas was different from extremist groups that we think of today, like Al-Qaeda or ISIS. It started out by focusing on social welfare programs, providing education, food and other social services to Palestinians. It eventually began to engage in resistance activities against the Israeli occupation and expanded land theft, such as attacks on military posts and capturing Israeli soldiers. After an extremist Israeli killed 29 Palestinians while they were praying, Hamas also began targeting civilians. See this and this and this and this.]
3. 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. [Editor’s note: For how this was reported to Americans see this.]
4. 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. [Editor’s Note: See this] 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. [See this.]
♦ 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.” [See this.]
♦ 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.”
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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. [See this]
Third
Towards a transparent international investigation
1. Palestine is a member-state of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and it acceded to its Rome Statute in 2015. When Palestine asked for investigation into Israeli war crimes committed on its territories, it was faced by Israeli intransigence and rejection, and threats to punish the Palestinians for the request to ICC. It is also unfortunate to mention that there were great powers, which claim to be holding values of justice, completely sided with the occupation narrative and stood against the Palestinian moves in the international justice system. These powers want to keep “Israel” as a state above the law and to ensure it escapes liability and accountability.
2. We urge these countries, especially the US administration, Germany, Canada and the UK, if they are meant for justice to prevail as they claim, they are ought to announce their support to the course of the investigation in all crimes committed in occupied Palestine and to give full support for the international courts to effectively do their job.
3. Despite having doubts from these countries to stand by justice, we still urge the ICC Prosecutor and his team to immediately and urgently come to occupied Palestine to look into the crimes and violations committed there, rather than merely observing the situation remotely or being subject to the Israeli restrictions.
4. In Dec. 2022, when the UN General Assembly passed a resolution seeking opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legal consequences of “Israel’s” illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, those (few) countries who back “Israel” announced their rejection to the move that was approved by nearly 100 countries. And when our people – and their legal and rights groups – sought to pursue prosecutions against the Israeli war criminals in front of the European countries courts – through the system of universal jurisdiction – the European regimes obstructed the moves in favor of the Israeli war criminals to remain running free.
5. The events of Oct. 7 must be put in its broader context, and that all cases of struggle against colonialism and occupation in our contemporary time be evoked. These experiences of struggle show that in the same level of oppression committed by the occupier; there would be an equivalent response by the people under occupation. [See this.]
6. The Palestinian people and peoples across the world realize the scale of lies and deception these governments that back the Israeli narrative practice in their attempts to justify their blind bias and to cover the Israeli crimes. These countries know the root causes of the conflict which are the occupation and the denial of the right of the Palestinian people to live in dignity on their lands. These countries show no interest towards the continuation of the unjust blockade on millions of Palestinians in Gaza, and also show no interest towards the thousands of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails held under conditions where their basic rights are mostly denied.
7. We hail the free people of the world from all religions, ethnicities and backgrounds who rally in all capitals and cities worldwide to voice their rejection to the Israeli crimes and massacres, and to show their support for the rights of the Palestinian people and their just cause.
Fourth
A reminder to the world, who is Hamas?
1. The Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” is a Palestinian Islamic national liberation and resistance movement. Its goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project. Its frame of reference is Islam, which determines its principles, objectives and means. Hamas rejects the persecution of any human being or the undermining of his or her rights on nationalist, religious or sectarian grounds.
2. Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion. Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Yet, it is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity.
3. The Palestinian people have always stood against oppression, injustice, and the committing of massacres against civilians regardless of who commit them. And based on our religious and moral values, we clearly stated our rejection to what the Jews were exposed to by the Nazi Germany. Here, we remind that the Jewish problem in essence was a European problem, while the Arab and Islamic environment was – across history – a safe haven to the Jewish people and to other peoples of other beliefs and ethnicities. The Arab and Islamic environment was an example to co-existence, cultural interaction and religious freedoms. The current conflict is caused by the Zionist aggressive behavior and its alliance with the western colonial powers; therefore, we reject the exploitation of the Jewish suffering in Europe to justify the oppression against our people in Palestine.
4. The Hamas Movement according to international laws and norms is a national liberation movement that has clear goals and mission. It gets its legitimacy to resist the occupation from the Palestinian right to self-defense, liberation and self-determination. Hamas has always been keen to restrict its fight and resistance with the Israeli occupation on the occupied Palestinian territory, yet, the Israeli occupation did not abide by that and committed massacres and killings against the Palestinians outside Palestine.
5. We stress that resisting the occupation with all means including the armed resistance is a legitimized right by all norms, divine religions, the international laws including the Geneva Conventions and its first additional protocol and the related UN resolutions e.g. The UN General Assembly Resolution 3236, adopted by the 29th session of the General Assembly on Nov. 22, 1974 which affirmed the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in Palestine, including the right to self-determination and the right to return to “their homes and property from where they were expelled, displaced and uprooted.” [See this.]
6. Our steadfast Palestinian people and their resistance are waging a heroic battle to defend their land and national rights against the longest and brutalist colonial occupation. The Palestinian people are confronting an unprecedented Israeli aggression that committed heinous massacres against Palestinian civilians, most of them were children and women. In the course of the aggression on Gaza, the Israeli occupation deprived our people in Gaza of food, water, medicines and fuel, and simply deprived them from all means of life. In the meantime, the Israeli warplanes savagely struck all Gaza infrastructures and public buildings including schools, universities, mosques, churches and hospitals in a clear sign of ethnic cleansing aimed at expelling the Palestinian people from Gaza. Yet, the backers of the Israeli occupation did nothing but kept the genocide ongoing against our people. [See this.]
7. The Israeli occupation’s use of the “self-defense” 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. In 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) gave an advisory opinion in the case concerning the “Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” which stated that “Israel” – the brutal occupying force – cannot rely on a right of self-defense to build such wall on the Palestinian territory. Furthermore, Gaza under the international law is still an occupied land, thus, the justifications for waging the aggression on Gaza is baseless and lacks its legal capacity, as well as lacks the essence of the self-defense idea.
Fifth
What is needed?
Occupation is occupation no matter how it describes or names itself, and remains a tool to break the will of the peoples and to keep oppressing them. On the other side, the experiences of the peoples\nations across history on how to break away from occupation and colonialism confirm that the resistance is the strategic approach and the only way to liberation and ending the occupation. Have any nation been liberated from occupation without struggle, resistance or sacrifice?
The humanitarian, ethical and legal imperatives necessitate all countries around the world to back the resistance of the Palestinian people not to collude against it. They are supposed to confront the occupation crimes and aggression, as well as to support the struggle of the Palestinian people to liberate their lands and to practice their right to self-determination like all peoples across the globe. Based on that we call for the following:
1. The immediate halt of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, the crimes and ethnic cleansing committed against the entire Gaza population, to open the crossings and allow the entry of the humanitarian aid into Gaza including the reconstruction tools.
2. To hold the Israeli occupation legally accountable for what it caused of human suffering towards the Palestinian people, and to charge it for the crimes against civilians, infrastructure, hospitals, educational facilities, mosques and churches.
3. The support of the Palestinian resistance in the face of the Israeli occupation with all possible means as a legitimized right under the international laws and norms.
4. We call upon the free peoples across the world, especially those nations who were colonized and realize the suffering of the Palestinian people, to take serious and effective positions against the double standard policies adopted by powers\countries that back the Israeli occupation. We call on these nations to initiate a global solidarity movement with the Palestinian people and to emphasize the values of justice and equality and the right of the peoples to live in freedom and dignity.
5. The superpowers, especially the US, the UK and France among others, must stop providing the Zionist entity with cover from accountability, and to stop dealing with it as a country above the law. Such unjust behavior by these countries allowed the Israeli occupation over 75 years to commit the worst crimes ever against the Palestinian people, land and sanctities. We urge the countries across the globe, today and more than before, to uphold their responsibilities towards the international law and the relevant UN resolutions that call for ending the occupation.
6. We categorically reject any international or Israeli projects aimed at deciding the future of Gaza that only serve to prolong the occupation. We stress that the Palestinian people have the capacity to decide their future and to arrange their internal affairs, and thus no party in the world has the right to impose any form of guardianship on the Palestinian people or decide on their behalf.
7. We urge for standing against the Israeli attempts to cause another wave of expulsion – or a new Nakba – to the Palestinians especially in the lands occupied in 1948 and the West Bank. We stress that there will be no expulsion to Sinai or Jordan or any other place, and if there is any relocation to the Palestinians, it will be towards their homes and areas they were expelled from in 1948, as affirmed by many UN resolutions.
8. We call for keeping the popular pressure around the world until ending the occupation; we call for standing against the normalization attempts with the Israeli entity and for a comprehensive boycott to the Israeli occupation and its backers.
ENDS
‘A time of painful birth and major transformation’: a senior Hamas leader reflects on October 7 and its aftermath
![Hamas Political Bureau member Mousa Abu Marzouk [Wikipedia]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Mousa-Abu-Marzouk-e1614072583330.jpeg?fit=1199%2C800&ssl=1)
In an exclusive interview with Mondoweiss, senior Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzouk discusses Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’s goals and accomplishments, international Palestine solidarity, and what comes next after a year of Israeli genocide in Gaza.
By Mondoweiss Editors, Reposted from Mondoweiss, October 6, 2024
Mousa Abu Marzouk is a Palestinian politician and senior member of Hamas who served as the first chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from 1992 until 1996, and deputy chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from January 1997 until April 2013, where he was succeeded by the late Ismail Haniyeh. Abu Marzouk has been a key figure in Palestinian politics and within the Hamas movement for decades, and continues to play a central role in the group’s politburo.
The following interview was conducted via email between September 27 and October 3, 2024. The questions and answers are copied below exactly as they were written, except for minor typographical corrections.
Mondoweiss Editors: Let’s start with the basics: What is the Hamas movement? How did you join it?
Mousa Abu Marzouk: The Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” is an Islamic Palestinian national liberation movement, whose goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project. Its reference point is Islam in its premises, goals, and means.
[Editor’s note: Israel was established in 1948 in what originally was named Palestine through a war of ethnic cleansing in which over 700,000 people (Palestinian Muslims and Christians) were forcibly expelled from their ancestral land and homes because they weren’t jewish. In 1967 Israel initiated another war and began a harsh military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli forces around the Gaza Strip are on land that belonged to refugees in Gaza. More information here.]
We were a group that managed the Palestinian work of the Muslim Brotherhood headed by Dr. Khairi Al-Agha, and I was his deputy. This group was in different countries in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Europe, and South America, and I was the official in the United States. When the Intifada began in 1987, the Gaza leadership added work in the national framework to the educational reform work and led the Palestinian Intifada under a new name, the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas. So did the leadership of Palestinian work outside Palestine and perhaps at the same time, with harmony and harmony, as did the West Bank leadership. So my brothers consider me among the founders of the movement and the Islamic Resistance Movement.
Mondoweiss Editors: How is the Hamas of today different from when you joined? What is Hamas’s message to the world today?
Before its launch, Hamas was a group of Palestinians working within an educational, reformist, charitable, and relief organization, and did not participate with the national action factions in their resistance efforts, or their political work. This was for objective reasons, the most important of which was the difficulty of maintaining a presence in Palestine which was in a stage of construction and growth, and abroad due to dispersion among Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon. The work between Palestine and Jordan was handled by the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, but when the Palestinian Intifada began, Hamas bore its burden with the various Palestinian factions, although all worked in the name of the unified leadership of the PLO, and Hamas worked under the leadership of the PLO.
Hamas’ message to the world is that we seek freedom for our people, and we seek to liberate our land that was usurped from us by force and by international resolutions, and from which our people were expelled. We want to return to our land and our property. We only want justice and freedom. We know the citizens of the powers and goals of the Western countries and their dominance over international politics, especially the United States, and the extent of their support for our Zionist enemy sitting on our land and occupying all of our land, and therefore we agreed to the national vision adopted by the Palestine Liberation Organization, with an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and Jerusalem as the capital of this state with the right of return. We seek with all the national community to liberate from occupation and establish this Palestinian state, and we call on the world that has ordered us with this right to help us achieve it and we consider that this goal can only be achieved by resistance and forcing Israel to leave.
Mondoweiss Editors: Could you describe to us what the “Al-Aqsa Flood” Operation that Hamas launched on October 7 was? What was its purpose, and do you think Hamas was successful in what it aimed to achieve?
Operation Al-Aqsa Flood is a purely military operation carried out by a military group from the Al-Qassam Brigades, consisting of an estimated 1,200 elite soldiers. Their objective is to confront the Gaza Division, which has been stationed around the perimeter of the Gaza Strip, imposing a strict siege since 2007. Hamas has called for the participation of the resistance in the West Bank, abroad, and from countries in the Axis of Resistance to achieve several key goals:
-
- Establishing an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
- Protecting Jerusalem and its holy sites from being Judaized or destroyed.
- Liberating our prisoners from Israeli occupation prisons.
- Breaking the siege on Gaza.
- Ensuring that our people live freely and with dignity, determining their own future through elections in which they can choose their leadership and destiny.
But the surprise that Hamas leadership did not anticipate was that the Gaza division of the Israeli army collapsed within a few hours, despite their possession of the most advanced weapons, including tanks, armored vehicles, aircraft, electronic devices, and espionage capabilities. They collapsed within hours, while we only had modest light weapons and dilapidated transport vehicles. However, we had strong men, training, high morale, a just cause, violated rights, missing freedom, and a desire to push back the oppression. This led to chaos we did not expect, entering the settlements and going further, reaching Sderot Rahat, and a radius of 40 kilometers away from the Gaza Strip. This chaos caused many people and factions to cross the separation line and capture both civilians and military personnel, as you have seen. Some even began carrying possessions from the settlements. In truth, all this chaos was the result of the Gaza division’s rapid collapse, something that Hamas did not expect.
As for the objectives that were achieved, they were far more than we anticipated, and here are some of them:
- The Palestinian cause returned to the forefront, and the entire world became aware of our cause and our rightful demands for a state, freedom, and a future.
- The whole world came to realize the true nature of Israel—its barbarism and its goal to exterminate Palestinian people—and its aggressive ambitions. This led to resolutions from the United Nations General Assembly, the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court, along with global condemnation against Israel.
Mondoweiss Editors: In an October 13, 2023 interview with the New Yorker, you said that on October 7 you were just as surprised as everyone else by the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, and you said that you were taken aback by its military success.
Editor’s note: below is an excerpt of the interview:
He told us that he’d been taken aback by the success of the assault: Hamas fighters had bulldozed about two dozen holes through the security barrier surrounding Gaza, and had penetrated more than twenty Israeli towns and villages. He said that Hamas’s leaders had expected the Israeli military units deployed around Gaza to be “the strongest divisions, and the most trained,” with “a lot of information and fortifications,” as well as assistance from “intelligence officers who know a lot about our movements.” Instead, he said, Israeli fighters had retreated in confusion. “We never expected that,” he said….
While we spoke, Israeli air strikes were escalating and troops were massing on the Gaza border, and Abu Marzouk appeared eager to open negotiations over the release of hostages. He declared that Hamas was ready to release any women, children, or elderly captives, in addition to citizens of other countries—if Israel ceased its military campaign. “The innocent people who were imprisoned, we will not keep them,” he told us….
He said that four captives had died already—Israeli soldiers captured at the Erez border crossing—but they had been killed by an Israeli air strike, not by Hamas fighters. He said, “Let the situation calm down and the bombardment stop for us to be able to differentiate the prisoners from various factions. They are a very big number.” Abu Marzouk went on, “Let us stop the war and everything can be discussed on this issue.”…..
Mondoweiss Editors: On October 7, as the events were still unfolding, what was your initial prediction of the nature of the Israeli response? Did your predictions on that day differ from what actually happened in the subsequent months?
The October 7th operation halted Israel’s project of regional dominance after it was shattered by just a few hundred Al-Qassam fighters. Israel can no longer claim that it protects the region and the Gulf against Iran, and thus all efforts to integrate it into the region have failed as a result of this operation.
As for the goals set by Hamas, they have been solidified on the ground, and the national project is now closer to realization, while the Zionist project is further from execution, despite the balance of power and the American support for Israel. Yes, Israel was taken by surprise by the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, which was planned and executed by the Al-Qassam Brigades without the involvement of the political leadership. As I mentioned before, the real surprise was in the fragility of the Gaza Division and the inability of the Israeli army to address the weakness and rapid collapse of the division, followed by chaos that terrified the Israelis and sparked existential fears. This led to an irrational Israeli response, going beyond all bounds, as they sought to annihilate and displace the Palestinian people, by any means, beyond the borders of historic Palestine, whether to Sinai or elsewhere.
As for whether my predictions on that day differed from what happened in the following months, the truth is I did expect such an Israeli response, given my understanding of the Zionist background and the fanatic Jewish mentality. I have read the Old Testament several times and studied the history of the Zionist movement, though I did not expect the U.S. to be so brutal in supplying Israel with the lethal weapons that kill in this manner and to protect them in all international forums. While I know American society well, politicians are something else entirely.
Did you have greater expectations for the West Bank and its participation in the Al-Aqsa Flood moment? Were you hopeful for a more widespread uprising in the West Bank in support of Gaza?
Yes, I did expect greater participation from the West Bank, but there are two reasons that prevented this. First, the policies of Mahmoud Abbas and his corrupt authority, and second, the settlers’ aggression, their plans, and the protection they receive from the army. However, we still expect much more in the future.
Mondoweiss Editors: After a year of genocidal Israeli war against the Palestinian people, many Palestinians who support the resistance think that Gaza should not be expected to continue to bear the cost of resistance alone. How do you respond to this?
This is true, but Palestinians in other regions must take responsibility because Palestinians have no option but to resist the Zionist project to achieve their goals of establishing an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Mondoweiss Editors: What is the future of the resistance after the genocide? Gaza has been decimated and many expect that its role in resistance will be deeply curtailed in the coming years. The West Bank is witnessing rampant settlement expansion alongside a brutal military campaign against armed resistance groups in the northern West Bank, while the Palestinian Authority continues to serve as a subcontractor for the occupation.
So what potential is there for Palestinians to advance their liberation struggle with all of these internal constraints?
Your description is accurate but look back a hundred years. After every setback for the national movement and resistance, the people produced new elements to confront the Zionist movement. After the 1927 revolution came the 1936 revolution. Thirty-six years later, there was the 1947 war, followed by the fedayeen operations, then the formation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Liberation Army. After 1984 and PLO’s exit from Lebanon, the First Intifada started in 1987, then the second in 2000, followed by wars in 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021. The Palestinian people are ready to pay the price, even sacrificing their children to defend their religion and homeland.
Mondoweiss Editors: Almost one year into the genocide, we have seen a failure on the part of the international community to stop the war and the killing of innocent civilians. Meanwhile, Palestinians have criticized the response of Arab countries and leaders for not doing enough to stop the bloodshed.
What do you make of the response of the International community and Arab leaders? What were your expectations, and how have they measured up to reality?
You must understand that U.S. policy is responsible for all this in the Middle East. It adopts Israeli policies, even if they contradict the American administration’s directions. It supplies them with all types of weapons and protects them in the UN and other international forums.
The countries in the region are divided into two categories: one possesses wealth and money, but that money is kept in American banks, allowing the U.S. to control these countries. The second group depends on international aid, which is also controlled by the U.S. Hence, the response of the region’s governments aligns with the U.S. will.
Additionally, other countries in the world do not want to confront the U.S. As for Europe, it is complicit with the U.S. in all these crimes. The countries outside of U.S. influence, such as Russia, China, South Africa, and Iran, have performed well on the international and legal levels. We are grateful to these countries, and the Palestinian people appreciate their efforts and thank them for their positions.
Mondoweiss Editors: Back in July, in the midst of the genocide, Hamas and Fatah signed a unity agreement in Beijing. You were there for the ceremony, and in your speech, you said, “We are committed to national unity.” When the agreement was signed, many Palestinians reacted the same way they have to other reconciliation talks and agreements over the past two decades that have ultimately led nowhere: with skepticism and bated breath. Many people viewed it as largely symbolic.
Aside from the agreement in Beijing, what is being done between Hamas, Fatah, and other Palestinian political parties to achieve national unity and a path forward for Palestinians? And what strategic role do you see reconciliation playing in the midst of this genocide?
The Palestinian people are facing a way of extermination, and every living being in Gaza is a target for the Israeli army. The army has destroyed all signs of life, including educational institutions, the health system, and more. In the West Bank, Palestinian land is being stolen, and settlements are expanding like a malignant cancer. The occupation authorities are tightening their grip on our people in the 1948 territories, aiming to displace them. Therefore, we see that unity is a prerequisite for victory, and its absence is a weakness within the Palestinian body. This is why we have been working for years to mend the divide. Our strategy is based on unity, and we have made concessions, reaching several agreements. However, two parties have consistently drawn a red line on unity and caused its failure: the U.S. administration and the Israeli occupation.
Beijing has been keen to help the Palestinian people, and we signed the Beijing Declaration. We are working with Palestinian factions to implement it, but the U.S. administration and the Israeli occupation are obstructing its implementation and threatening Fatah and the Palestinian Authority.
Mondoweiss Editors: What should be the goal of the international solidarity movement for Palestine? Is the objective of calling for a ceasefire still meaningful given that most of Gaza has been destroyed, or should the solidarity movement’s demands shift?
We extend our appreciation to the international solidarity movement with Palestine for their humanity and their efforts in confronting war criminals, despite the daily pressures they face. The situation even reached the point where American pilot Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire in protest against Israel’s genocide and the Biden administration’s stance on the war. We, along with our people, are deeply grateful to him and his family, as well as to all the free individuals standing in solidarity with our cause.
Stopping the genocide is a central goal, and efforts must continue in this direction. The Israeli occupation army commits massacres daily, without a single day of pause, making this the current priority. Additionally, it is imperative to work on breaking the siege imposed on the people, as hundreds of thousands are homeless, winter is approaching, and there is no clean water, electricity, or any semblance of normal life. Therefore, breaking the siege to allow the entry of essential supplies for the residents of Gaza is crucial. Furthermore, Israeli war criminals must be pursued so they do not escape justice, as they are pushing the Middle East and the world towards a third world war that will harm every human being on the planet. Stopping them is in all our interests.
Mondoweiss Editors: In his speech to the UN General Assembly this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Hamas to surrender and vowed to continue its genocidal assault on Gaza until Israel achieves “total victory.” What is your response to this?
Netanyahu wants Hamas to surrender, but we are a resistance movement defending our people, and we will not surrender. We will continue our resistance. Even if we assume Hamas surrenders, the enemy will continue the genocide because its problem is with the Palestinian people, not with Hamas. Look at what they are doing in Jerusalem and the West Bank, areas where Hamas does not have a strong presence, yet hundreds have been killed.
As for the agreement, we agreed, but Netanyahu continues to sabotage it. The mediators have witnessed that Hamas’s position is sound, and the problem lies with the Israeli occupation.
Mondoweiss Editors: What are Hamas’s plans for the next few years in Gaza? What are Hamas’s political objectives for the “Day After” in Gaza, both if a ceasefire agreement is reached and if an agreement is not reached?
Hamas is an integral part of the Palestinian people. It won by a landslide in the last free elections. We are committed to achieving the Palestinian people’s goals of freedom, returning to their occupied lands, and ending the Israeli occupation. This goal remains central to Hamas until it is achieved.
For the day after, Hamas will work with all Palestinian political components to form a national unity technocratic government, non-factional, with the primary goal of providing relief to the people, addressing the aftermath of the war, and rebuilding the devastated sector for a limited period. It will then prepare for the Palestinian elections, and everyone must respect the results of these elections.
Meanwhile, we will work diligently to address the war’s effects. There are tens of thousands of orphans, thousands who have lost limbs, and hundreds of thousands without homes or shelter, in addition to the other tragedies our people are experiencing. Certainly, there is a central role for the world in helping to overcome this humanitarian disaster. We are people who have been under aggression since 1948 without any fault except for their greed for our land.
The U.S. has publicly supported Israel’s stated aim of destroying Hamas and maintains its position that Hamas is a terrorist organization. Do you think there is a future for Hamas to be accepted as a political actor and as part of the leadership of the Palestinian people? And how much have the events of the past year influenced that possibility?
Hamas remains, and the Israeli occupation army failed to eliminate the movement. However, it exploited the goal of eliminating Hamas to kill civilians and destroy Gaza. We view the U.S. administration as a key partner in the war on our people. Biden personally led the war council, and Blinken formed a political protection wall for Netanyahu, pushing to prevent food and water from reaching Gaza’s people. Additionally, the bombs falling on the heads of children, women, and the elderly are American-made.
What matters to us is the acceptance of the Palestinian people. We derive our legitimacy from the Palestinian people, not from the U.S. administration or external parties. We defend our people for their independence, freedom, and dignity, so they are not beholden to anyone.
Mondoweiss Editors: As we speak, Israel’s bombardment on Lebanon continues, and the death toll there is climbing. Despite what is at stake for Hezbollah and Lebanon, the “support front” has vowed to continue its fight with Israel until the genocide is over. Meanwhile, other groups like Ansar Allah in Yemen have used their modest military capabilities and their own means to put pressure on Israel to stop the killing.
Do you think that Hezbollah and the broader “axis of resistance” has done everything it could to support Palestinians? Or do you think they could have done more earlier on in the genocide?
We have been, and continue to be, subjected to genocide by a group whose ancestors were subjected to genocide by Europeans, especially Germans, in World War II. This is deeply ironic because our people did not harm them. Those who were victims of genocide should stand against it, not practice it on the weak.
In this war, we thank everyone who has stood with us, regardless of the level. The support fronts have taken a heroic stance in confronting the occupation and defending the Palestinian people. Today, Lebanon is also under attack because of its humanitarian and moral stance.
The discussion should not be about whether the support fronts could have done more, but rather about those who watch the genocide of our people and either remain silent or participate. They are the ones who should review their humanity and values, knowing that Israel’s evil will eventually reach them all.
Mondoweiss Editors: Many have speculated that Iran and the “axis of resistance,” who say they did not know about Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, were not happy about the timing of the October 7 attack because the “axis” was not ready to get into this fight. This seems to be the case given that Hezbollah’s “support front” has been comparatively restrained, indicating that Hasan Nasrallah [did] not want to invite wider destruction to Lebanon.
Why did Hamas pick its operation to happen now? Was the Al-Aqsa Flood operation a way of forcing the “axis of resistance” to commit to the Palestinian cause more fully?
The Al-Aqsa Flood Operation is linked to the Palestinian cause and is a self-made decision by the Palestinian resistance. It is not directed at anyone but the Israeli occupation.
We see before our eyes the extremist Israeli government adopting a policy of resolving the conflict. We feared for the liquidation of the Palestinian cause as settlements spread rapidly, Israel changes the status quo in Jerusalem, and it wants control over the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Christian and Islamic holy sites in the city. The tight siege on Gaza has lasted for more than 17 years, and there are many thousands of prisoners in enemy prisons, some of whom have been detained for over 40 years. Normalization has begun to reach central countries in the region, which is why we acted to change this reality by targeting the military brigade of the army that imposes the siege on Gaza.
Mondoweiss Editors: What can the past year tell us about the future of Palestine and the broader region? Where do we go from here? Where does Gaza go from here?
We are in a significant historical phase, and today, history is being made. What came before October 7 will not remain the same after it. This is a time of painful birth and major transformation, and these changes will not remain confined to Palestine but will extend to the region and even the global system.
This is an opportunity for every individual and force to have a place in these transformations and be remembered by history for being on the right side—on the side of oppressed peoples.
Mondoweiss Editors: Do you have a message for the international community and for the supporters of Palestinian liberation around the globe?
My message to the international community is that one of the motivations behind the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation was the international community’s failure to prevent the occupation from liquidating the Palestinian cause. Our position has been validated because the international community has watched our extermination for a year and has done nothing practical or effective to prevent it. After a year of genocide, we still see Netanyahu speaking at the UN. Therefore, we say that your silence on Netanyahu will create others like him among you, and when that happens the suffering will reach everyone. There is still time for you to take humane and ethical positions that are in your interest as much as they are in ours.
To the free people supporting the liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian people are watching your actions, and we see that you pose a real threat to the occupation. Continue your struggle, continue exposing the occupation, highlighting its crimes, and putting pressure on it and its supporters. Make them outcasts wherever they go, and sever the ties between your governments and the Israeli government. Ensure that your activism becomes more effective because the children of Palestine need your action.
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- For numerous related articles, see the editor’s notes above.
- For many more, go here and here and here.
- It’s valuable to be aware that killing civilians and children is a war crime; Israel has killed vastly more than have Palestinians.)
- Hamas’s 2017 Charter: Full Text
- What ‘Israel’s right to exist’ means to Palestinians
- I could have been one of those who broke through the siege on October 7
