Hamas has published a 16-page document presenting a justification for its actions on October 7. The document denies that the terror group committed atrocities against civilians, and calls for an international investigation into the events of the day, branding Hamas a “national liberation” group, battling “colonialism.”
On its front and back covers, the document features pictures of Gazans on an Israeli tank, as well as images of paragliders reminiscent of the early phases of the assault.
The document, titled “Our Narrative: Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” is addressed to “Arab and Islamic nations” and “free peoples worldwide.” It is divided into five parts: a narrative of the Arab-Israeli conflict; an account of October 7; a call for an “international investigation” of what happened; a presentation of the terror group itself; and a set of demands and calls to action.
The first section of the document presents the conflict as a 105-year battle by Palestinians against “colonialism.” It makes reference to the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate, and recounts the formation of Israel by “Zionist gangs” while “the Palestinians were denied from [sic] the right to self-determination.”
The document levies accusations against Israel related to the Six Day War, West Bank settlements, and the supposed “Judaization” of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem; it also makes reference to the issues of Palestinian prisoners, the blockade of Gaza, and the denial of a Palestinian right of return— maintaining, all the while, that the United States is complicit in Israel’s actions.
Denying atrocities on October 7, blaming Israel for civilian deaths
Hamas’s account of the October 7 attacks alleges that the “operation…targeted the Israeli military sites… and sought to arrest the enemy’s soldiers.” It avoids any mention of the bloody raids on Israeli towns and Kibbutzim.
It also avoids any mention of the approximately 240 people that Hamas took captive on October 7 as hostages, only implying their captivity in a claim that Israeli operations in Gaza were responsible for their deaths.
The document boasts of the Hamas terrorists’ “religious and moral commitment,” claiming that the “Al-Qassam Brigades fighters…avoid[ed] harm to civilians, especially children, women, and elderly people.” It adds that “if there was any case of targeting civilians; [sic] it happened accidentally and in the course of this confrontation,” and “maybe some faults happened during… implementation due to the rapid collapse of the Israeli security and military system.”
The terrorist group claims that “testimonies by Israelis” show that Hamas “did not target civilians,” invoking the “lie of the 40 beheaded babies”— a ‘debunked’ claim that was never in fact made by any Israeli press or spokespeople— and a report by the anti-Israel outlet Mondoweiss that reported a “lack of any evidence of mass rape.” The group blames Israeli helicopters for killing “many” of the 364 civilians massacred at the Nova music festival, saying that Hamas “had no prior knowledge of it.”
Additionally, the document says, “it must be known that conscription applies to all Israelis above the age of 18,” and that “all can carry and use arms.” The document calls Israel “an army with a country attached,” insinuating that all Israelis can be considered legitimate targets. Finally, the document alleges hypocrisy on the part of those who would accept civilian casualties as collateral damage in Gaza while condemning Hamas’s actions during its massacres on October 7.
Calls for an investigation in The Hague
The document calls for an “independent investigation,” insisting that such a probe would prove “the truth of our narrative and… the scale of lies and misleading information in [sic] the Israeli side.” This leads into the document’s third chapter, calling for an investigation by the International Criminal Court to look at “the broader context” of the October 7 attack as part of the “struggle against colonialism.”
The fourth section of the document, titled “A reminder to the world, who is Hamas,” seeks to rebrand the organization, designated as a terrorist group by the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and the EU— as a “national liberation and resistance movement.” The document refers to several clauses in Hamas’s updated charter from 2017, alleging that the conflict is not with the Jews, but rather with Zionism. The section condemns “what the Jews were exposed to by Nazi Germany,” despite Hamas officials’ repeated denials of the Holocaust and their use of antisemitic rhetoric, and praises Muslim nations for having provided Jews a “safe haven” for centuries.
The document says that Hamas receives their legitimacy from the “Palestinian right to self-defense, liberation and self-determination,” claiming that according to “all norms, divine religions and international laws,” as well as the Geneva convention, parties are granted the right to resist by any means necessary, including armed resistance— especially, the group says, when facing “the longest and brutalist [sic] colonial occupation,” as well as “massacres” and “oppression.”
Finally, Hamas says that “Occupation is occupation no matter how it describes or names itself” and calls on all countries around the world to back “Palestinian resistance” and support the Palestinians’ “struggle for liberation.” The terrorist group calls on its allies to “support… the Palestinian resistance,” to charge Israel with crimes, to mobilize against “Israeli aggression” on Gaza, and to stop governments from providing further aid or arms to Israel.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
Comments are closed.