Our Narrative: Operation Al-Aqsa Flood

Editor’s note: Here we share a Telegram statement from the Palestinian resistance.

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 October 7, the motives behind it, its general context related to the Palestinian cause, as well as a refutation of the Israeli allegations, and to put the facts into perspective.

First: Why Operation Al-Aqsa Flood?

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 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, all of which 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 apartheid policies. The Gaza Strip, for example, has suffered since 2007 from a suffocating blockade which turned it into the largest open-air prison in the world. The Palestinian people in Gaza also have suffered from five destructive wars and aggressions, in all of which “Israel” was the offending party. In 2018 the people of Gaza also initiated the Great March of Return demonstrations to peacefully protest the Israeli blockade, their miserable humanitarian conditions, and to demand their right-to-return. However, the Israeli occupation forces responded to these protests with brutal force: 360 Palestinians were killed and 19,000 others were injured, including over 5,000 children in a matter of few months.

3)

According to official figures, in the period between January 2000 and September 2023, the Israeli occupation killed 11,299 Palestinians and injured 156,768 others, and the 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 stood 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 of Palestinian civilians and the brutal aggression on the Gaza Strip, and still US officials continue to ignore the mass killings in Gaza committed by Israeli occupation forces.

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. However, these reports and testimonies were ignored and the Israeli occupation is yet to be held accountable. For example, on Oct. 29, 2021, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan insulted the UN system by tearing up a report from 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 treated Israel as a state above the law; they provide it with the needed cover to maintain the prolonging of the occupation and the crackdown on Palestinian people, and also allow “Israel” to exploit such situations to further expropriate 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.

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 settlement construction and Judaization of the Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. Thirty years later backers of the peace process have realized that they have reached an impasse and that this process had catastrophic results on the Palestinian people.

The Israeli officials confirmed on several occasions their absolute rejection of 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, and including the West Bank and Gaza. The entire world was silent towards his speech at UN General Assembly’s podium, 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 the Palestinian people to do in response to the following:

The Israeli Judaization plans for 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 taking practical steps towards annexing the entire West Bank and Jerusalem into 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 for over 17 years.
The expansion of the Israeli settlements across the West Bank at 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, in which the superpowers are complicit, to bring about the establishment of a Palestinian state.

What was expected from the Palestinian people after all of this? 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 act of self-defense 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 within the framework of getting rid of the Israeli occupation, reclaiming Palestinian rights, and on the way to liberation and independence as is the right of all peoples around the world.

Second: The Events of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and Responses to the Israeli Allegations

In light of fabricated Israeli accusations and allegations about Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and its repercussions, we in the Islamic Resistance Movement/Hamas clarify the following:

1)

Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct. 7 targeted Israeli military sites and sought to arrest the enemy’s soldiers to pressure 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 accidentally and in the course of the confrontation with the occupation forces.

Since its establishment in 1987, the Hamas Movement has 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 during the brunt of fighting by all parties, but the Israeli occupation rejected it and did not even offer any comment on it. The Hamas Movement also repeated such calls several times, but was met by deaf ears from the Israeli occupation, which continued its deliberate targeting and killing of Palestinian civilians.

3)

Perhaps some faults occurred 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 civilians were released in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails.

4)

What the Israeli occupation’s 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 has always sought to demonize the Palestinian resistance, while also legalizing its own brutal aggressions 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.
Also firmly refuted is the lie about Palestinian fighters “beheading 40 babies,” and even Israeli sources deny this lie. Many western media agencies have 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 on Dec. 1, 2023 by the Mondoweiss news website, 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.”
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. 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’s notorious “Hannibal Directive,” which clearly expresses “better a dead civilian hostage or soldier than a civilian or soldier taken alive,” to avoid engaging in a prisoner 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 aircraft capable of killing, burning, and destroying 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 stated 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 justify the Israeli mass killing of Palestinians by saying there would be civilian casualties when they attack Hamas fighters. However, they would not use such an 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 on 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 the reports of many western press agencies.

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 have to mention that there are great powers—who claim to hold values of justice—who 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 intend for justice to prevail as they claim, to announce their support of the investigation of all crimes committed in occupied Palestine and to give full support to the international courts to effectively do their job.

3)

Despite having doubts that these countries will stand on the side of justice, we 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 of the move, even though it was approved by nearly 100 other countries. And when our people, as well as 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 remaining free.

5)

The events of Oct. 7 must be put in a broader context, and all cases of struggle against colonialism and occupation in our contemporary time must be invoked. These experiences of struggle show that the level of oppression committed by an occupier creates an equivalent level of response by the people under occupation.

6)

The Palestinian people, and other people 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 over 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 seem disinterested in the continuing unjust blockade on millions of Palestinians in Gaza, and also show no interest towards the thousands of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, who are 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 of the Israeli crimes and massacres, and who 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 Jews on the basis 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 commits them. And based on our religious and moral values, we clearly stated our rejection of what the Jews were exposed to by Nazi Germany. Here, we remind ourselves that the Jewish problem in essence was a European problem, while the Arab and Islamic environment was—across history—a safe haven for the Jewish people and for peoples of other beliefs and ethnicities. The Arab and Islamic environment was an example of co-existence, cultural interaction, and religious freedoms. The current conflict is caused by aggressive Zionist behavior and its alliance with 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 a clear mission and goals. 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 of Palestinians outside Palestine.

5)

We stress that resisting the occupation with all means, including armed resistance, is a right legitimized by all norms, divine religions, and international law, 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.”

6)

The steadfast Palestinian people and their resistance movements are waging a heroic battle to defend their land and national rights against the longest and most brutal colonial occupation. The Palestinian people are confronting an unprecedented Israeli aggression, one that has committed heinous massacres of Palestinian civilians, most of whom are children and women. In the course of its aggression against Gaza, the Israeli occupation deprived our people of food, water, medicines and fuel—from all means of life. In the meantime, 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 keep the genocide going against our people.

7)

The Israeli occupation’s use of the “self-defense” pretext to justify its oppression of Palestinian people is a process of lying, deception, and fact-obscuring. The Israeli entity has no right to defend its crimes and occupation, but the Palestinian people do have a right to oblige the occupier to end its 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, under international law Gaza is still an occupied land, thus, the justifications for waging any aggression against Gaza is baseless and lacks its legal capacity, as well as lacks the essence of a claim to self-defense.

Fifth: What Is Needed?

An occupation is an occupation no matter how it describes or names itself, and remains a tool to break the will of a people 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 resistance is the strategic approach and the only path to liberation and ending an occupation. Has 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, rather than to collude against it. They are supposed to confront the occupation’s crimes and aggressions, 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 aggressions in Gaza, the crimes and ethnic cleansing committed against the entire Gaza population, to open the crossings and allow the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza including tools necessary for its reconstruction.

2)

To hold the Israeli occupation legally accountable for the human suffering of the it has caused in Palestine, and to charge it for 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 free people across the world, especially those nations who were colonized and understand 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 all people 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 has for over 75 years allowed the Israeli occupation to commit the worst crimes ever against the Palestinian people, land, and sanctities. We urge the countries of the world, now more than ever before, to uphold their responsibilities towards 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—these only serve to prolong the occupation. We stress that the Palestinian people have the capacity to decide their future and to arrange their own 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 everyone to stand against Israeli attempts to cause another wave of expulsion—or a new Nakba—of 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 up popular pressure around the world until the ending of the occupation; we call for standing against the normalization of relations with the Israeli entity, and for a comprehensive boycott of the Israeli occupation and its backers.