https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20813/hamas-october-7-reason
The Hamas document [which purports to explain why it massacred 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023] lists a number of reasons, all of which can be easily refuted, as to why the terrorist group launched its attack on Israel.
This claim is totally untrue: there are absolutely no Israeli “plans” to split the Al-Aqsa Mosque into a Jewish and Muslim area or to convert it into a Jewish site.
The purported “plans” exist only in the imagination of Hamas and other Palestinians. It is simply part of a Palestinian campaign of defamation against Israel to try to justify the murder of Jews.
According to the “status quo,” formulated by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan in 1967, Jews would not be permitted to pray on the Temple Mount but would be able to visit the site.
While Israel has respected the status quo, Muslims have consistently violated it in an apparent attempt to deepen their hold on the holy site.
It is also important to note that Hamas and many Palestinians consider all Jews “settlers,” regardless of whether they live in Tel Aviv, or in a settlement in the West Bank, or in New York.
Hamas further claims that it launched its attack because of “thousands of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails who are experiencing deprivation of their basic rights.”
Most of the “detainees” Hamas is referring to are convicted terrorists who were imprisoned for murdering or attempting to murder people (usually Jews). For many years, these terrorist prisoners have enjoyed comfortable conditions, especially when it comes to entertainment and leisure. A variety of exercise equipment – including ping-pong tables, stationary bicycles and pull-up bars (in addition to chess) – is available. Each prison cell is equipped with a television, and the prisoners have access to at least 10 channels. Palestinian prisoners, in addition, are entitled to family visits and unlimited access to lawyers.
In contrast, both the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip have been accused by human rights organizations of “systematically torturing critics” in detention. A report published by Human Rights Watch in 2022 said: “PA and Hamas security forces routinely taunt and threaten detainees, use solitary confinement and beatings, including whipping their feet, and force detainees into painful stress positions for prolonged periods, including hoisting their arms behind their backs with cables or rope, to punish and intimidate critics and opponents and elicit confessions…”
As of October 7, 2023, an estimated 18,000 – 18,500 residents of the Gaza Strip held work permits issued by the Israeli authorities to enable them to work in Israel, where their pay is five times higher than in Gaza. As noted last month: “Many of those workers to whom Israel opened its doors were apparently working in Israel by day, and by night returning to Gaza and providing Hamas with highly detailed maps and drawings of every house in Israel’s border communities, and reports about everyone in them, including the pet dogs.”
Israel can only conclude that “no good deed goes unpunished.”
Hamas also claims it launched its attack on Israel because of the “seven million Palestinians living in extreme conditions in refugee camps who wish to return to their lands.” If the “refugees” are living in extreme conditions, it is because their leaders have failed to permit the building of new homes for them or to improve their living conditions. There is no reason why “refugee camps” continue to exist under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, under Hamas in the Gaza Strip or anyplace else.
The same abuse applies to the Arab countries hosting Palestinian “refugees”: Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. What have these countries done to incorporate their Palestinian brethren? Nothing. There is no reason why a Palestinian living in an Arab country should be treated as a “refugee” or a second-class citizen.
Hamas, in its document, is actually stating that it sent its men to murder, rape and kidnap Jews because Israel refused to open its borders to millions of Palestinian “refugees” who are told to murder Jews and destroy the only Jewish state.
Finally, Hamas argues that it launched its attack because of the international community and world powers seeking to “prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.” This claim, of course, is completely false. In fact, most of the international community, including the United States, the EU, Russia and China, have long been pushing hard for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
If anyone is to blame for the failure of the “two-state solution,” it is Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. The leaders of the PA were presented with multiple opportunities to create a state of their own, but each time declined Israel’s offer of peace without so much as a counteroffer.
[I]is laughable to hear Hamas lament the failure of the “two-state solution.” This is an organization whose charter openly calls for waging Jihad (holy war) to obliterate Israel… “Resistance and jihad for the liberation of Palestine will remain a legitimate right, a duty and an honour for all the sons and daughters of our people and our Ummah.” – Article 23, of the “new, improved” Hamas Charter of 2017.
Hamas’s attempt to defend its crimes against Israelis should be seen as part of its attempts to mislead and fool the international community.
The October 7 massacre was orchestrated by Hamas with the sole intent of slaughtering as many Jews as possible as part of its Jihad to destroy Israel. Period.
