Hamas Justifies October 7 Massacre in New Narrative

January 23, 2024

by: Kate Norman

Tuesday, 23 January 2024 | The October 7 massacre in which Hamas terrorists stormed into Israel and murdered some 1,200 people and took 240 hostage was justified resistance against the Israeli occupation, according to a new narrative published by the terror group.

The October 7 was simply a natural reaction to the evil Zionist occupation and did not actually target civilians, according to the document by the Hamas media office entitled “Our Narrative: Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” published in English and Arabic.

Operation Al-Aqsa Flood is Hamas’s name for the massacre on October 7.

The narrative opens by diving into the history behind the “operation,” according to Hamas’s version of history. It delves into the Palestinian narrative of the Land of Israel, which claims that the land was under occupation by British colonialism during the British Mandate and then by the rebirth of Israel in 1948.

It weaves a sad tale of Palestinian suffering under the apartheid Israel regime and blames the Israeli government for the fact that there is no sovereign Palestinian state, making no mention of the consistent policy of Palestinian rejections of any peace negotiations. It also fails to acknowledge decades of Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis.

“What did the world expect from the Palestinian people to do in response to the following,” the narrative asks before outlining its charges against Israel, which include

“Judaization” of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount, Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria (the so-called “West Bank” [Judea and Samaria]), the blockade on Gaza, and the international community’s failure to assist in creating a Palestinian state.

“What was expected from the Palestinian people after all of that?” the narrative reads. “To keep waiting and to keep counting on the helpless United Nations! Or to take the initiative in defending the Palestinian people, lands, rights and sanctities…

“Proceeding from the above, Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7 was a necessary step and a normal response to confront all Israeli conspiracies against the Palestinian people and their cause,” Hamas continued.

The “necessary” and “normal response” was for thousands of Hamas fighters to rage into Israel and initiate a brutal massacre that involved the murder, torture and rape of mostly civilians—particularly women, children and the elderly.

The Hamas terrorists filmed the atrocities themselves, many of them sporting Go-Pro cameras to capture their deeds—firing into the crowd of the Nova music festival in the desert, shooting at Israeli children hiding under kitchen tables, chopping the heads off of Israeli soldiers, the list goes on.

And yet, according to the Hamas narrative, the October 7 massacre only “targeted 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.”

However, most of the attacks were on quiet Israeli communities with no Israeli soldiers or security personnel in sight. And the terrorists, in their apparent attempt to “arrest the enemy’s soldiers,” kidnapped old women, babies and young children instead.

Avoiding harming civilians, particularly women, children and the elderly “is a religious and moral commitment by the Al-Qassam Brigades’ fighters,” Hamas declared, insisting that they only targeted “the occupation soldiers and those who carried weapons against our people.” This apparently includes crying children locked in safe rooms, old men and women in their kitchens, and terrified mothers clutching their babies.

And yet, the narrative accounted for that as well. “In addition, if there was any case of targeting civilians; it happened accidently and in the course of the confrontation with the occupation forces.”

The creative narrative went on to deny the claims of Israel and the international community—citing well-documented evidence—of the October 7 atrocities, denying that they happened or blaming them on the Israelis instead in an attempt to turn the tables.

And there are people out there who buy into the blood libel, conspiracy theory groups on social media who claim the October 7 massacre was actually committed by Israelis in order to justify their ground operation in Gaza.

Just as some deny that the Holocaust ever happened—despite the photographs, videos, physical evidence, mass graves and eyewitness testimonies, a disturbing trend is spreading of overlooking the hard evidence and denying, yet again, Israel’s right to defend itself against a group bent on its destruction.

Posted on January 23, 2024

Source: (Bridges for Peace, January 23, 2024)

Photo Credit: Tasnim News Agency/Wikimedia.org

Photo License: Wikimedia