Hamas: Oct. 7 operation ‘preemptive strike’ to defend Palestinians, holy sites

A senior Hamas official says the historic Operation al-Aqsa Flood by the Palestinian resistance movement into the Israeli-occupied territories on October 7, 2023, was a “preemptive strike” to defend Palestinians and their holy sites.

Ezz al-Din al-Hadad, a member of the Military Council of the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said in an interview with the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network that the October 7 operation was in response to Israel’s intensified blockade of the Gaza Strip and the regime’s plans for a ground invasion of the Palestinian territory.

“Here in Gaza, the siege was systematically tightened to subject our people to slow death. We could not stand idly by or merely observe. It has never been part of our resistance doctrine to neglect or delay in supporting our Prophet (PBUH),” Hadad said.

“Hence, al-Aqsa Flood became necessary to thwart the enemy’s systematic plans with an unprecedented and seismic preemptive strike in defense of our sanctities, people, and resistance.”

The Hamas official underlined that the Israeli regime was attempting to “deceive” the resistance movement by slightly improving the living conditions in Gaza while ignoring the situation in the occupied West Bank and al-Quds.

“We warned that this reality could not be tolerated or accepted. However, the occupation attempted to deceive us and neutralize our resistance in Gaza by slightly improving living conditions in the Gaza Strip … This, of course, strengthened our resolve to activate the military option, especially after all other options failed,” Hadad added.

Pointing to the arrangements made by Hamas prior to the October 7 operation, Hadad said the military leadership had been in continuous session since October 1st, finalizing plans for the attack.

“In the 24 hours preceding the zero hour, command and control rooms were linked to the central operations room overseeing the execution. Troops tasked with carrying out the attack were mobilized, and combat support weapons were on full alert until 6:30 a.m. on the morning of October 7,” he said.

“Our attack was meticulously coordinated with the maneuvers our fighters had trained for. At zero hour, our rocket salvos, drone and glider swarms, and naval units synchronized with thousands of elite al-Qassam infantry who breached the separation barrier. By God’s grace, the barrier collapsed at the hands of engineering unit fighters in a breathtaking scene under divine protection,” he added.

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Praising the retaliatory operation as an “astonishing success,” Hadad said, “Despite the operation’s massive scale, the enemy obtained no information about it, and its defenses were ineffective against our fighters. Our fighters demonstrated remarkable skill, courage, and the highest levels of ethics and responsibility in the field.”

The Hamas official also outlined conditions for ending the Gaza war, saying, “The occupation leadership, which relies on the power of America and the West, will have no choice but to comply with our just demands to stop the aggression, withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip, release our prisoners in the occupation’s prisons—especially those sentenced to life imprisonment—lift the siege, and begin reconstruction.”

Israel has killed at least 47,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 111,000 other individuals in Gaza since the onset of its genocidal war against Gaza on October 7, 2023. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.

Israel was forced to agree to a ceasefire, which began on January 19, after it failed to achieve its declared objectives in the besieged territory.

Palestinians celebrated the ceasefire as a victory with some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners set to be released from Israeli prisons in exchange for Israeli captives held in Gaza.

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