Statement following the onset of the Hamas-Israel war in the Gaza strip:

 “[T]he current victories achieved in Palestine have been unable to be achieved by all the Arab armies…all the Arab leaders abandoned the Palestinian cause, and only the Islamic Revolution [referring to Iran] and the resistance factions remain with it…if America intervenes in Palestine, we will be forced to intervene and will not hesitate to target [US personnel].”Joe Truzman, “Other Iraqi groups, figures join the fray warning the United States against support for Israel,” Long War Journal, October 11, 2023, https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2023/10/other-iraqi-groups-figures-join-the-fray-warning-the-united-states-against-support-for-israel.php.

From Hamas’s “Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”:

“The Hamas Movement according to international laws and norms is a national liberation movement that has clear goals and mission. 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 against the Palestinians outside Palestine.

“5. We stress that resisting the occupation with all means including the armed resistance is a legitimized right by all norms, divine religions, the international laws 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. Our steadfast Palestinian people and their resistance are waging a heroic battle to defend their land and national rights against the longest and brutalist colonial occupation. The Palestinian people are confronting an unprecedented Israeli aggression that committed heinous massacres against Palestinian civilians, most of them were children and women. In the course of the aggression on Gaza, the Israeli occupation deprived our people in Gaza of food, water, medicines and fuel, and simply deprived them from all means of life. In the meantime, the 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 kept the genocide ongoing against our people.”“Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” Hamas Online Telegram Channel, January 21, 2024.

From Hamas’s “Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”:

“Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because 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.”“Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” Hamas Online Telegram Channel, January 21, 2024.

From Hamas’s “Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”:

“The events of Oct. 7 must be put in its broader context, and that all cases of struggle against colonialism and occupation in our contemporary time be evoked. These experiences of struggle show that in the same level of oppression committed by the occupier; there would be an equivalent response by the people under occupation.”“Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” Hamas Online Telegram Channel, January 21, 2024.

From Hamas’s “Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”:

“In light of the Israeli fabricated accusations and allegations over Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct. 7 and its repercussions, we in the Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas clarify the following:

“1. Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct. 7 targeted the 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. 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 accidently and in the course of the confrontation with the occupation forces.

“Since its establishment in 1987, the Hamas Movement 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 the brunt of fighting by all parties, but the Israeli occupation rejected it and even did not give any comment on it.

“The Hamas Movement also repeated such calls several times, but received by a deaf ear from the Israeli occupation which continued its deliberate targeting and killing of Palestinian civilians.

“3. Maybe some faults happened 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 those civilians were released in exchange of releasing Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails.

“4. What the Israeli occupation promoted of 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 had always sought to demonize the Palestinian resistance, while also legalizing its brutal aggression on Gaza.”“Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” Hamas Online Telegram Channel, January 21, 2024.

From Hamas’s “Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”:

“What was expected from the Palestinian people after all of that? 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 defense act 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 in the frame of getting rid of the Israeli occupation, reclaiming the Palestinian rights and on the way for liberation and independence like all peoples around the world did.”“Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” Hamas Online Telegram Channel, January 21, 2024.

From Hamas’s “Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”:

“The US administration and its western allies have always been treating Israel as a state above the law; they provide it with the needed cover to maintain prolonging the occupation and cracking down the Palestinian people, and also allowing “Israel” to exploit such situation to expropriate further Palestinian lands and to Judaize their sanctities and holy sites.”“Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” Hamas Online Telegram Channel, January 21, 2024.

From Hamas’s “Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”:

“Over these long decades, the Palestinian people suffered all forms of oppression, injustice, expropriation of their fundamental rights and the apartheid policies. The Gaza Strip, for example, suffered as of 2007 from a suffocating blockade over 17 years which turned it to be the largest open-air prison in the world. The Palestinian people in Gaza also suffered from five destructive wars\aggressions all of which “Israel” was the offending party.”“Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” Hamas Online Telegram Channel, January 21, 2024.

“We send a message of blessing, pride and praise to the men of the Al-Qassam Brigades and the Al-Quds Brigades and all the heroes of the Palestinian resistance who continue to poke the noses of the officers and soldiers of the occupation army and insult their faces, and make their leaders pay the price for their occupation of our land, and the price for their crimes against our people, our land and our sanctities.”

“The Nazi occupation’s marketing, in partnership with the American administration, of what is called ‘the transition to the third phase of the war’ comes in the context of false and exposed black propaganda by our people and our resistance, and a desperate attempt to pass it off as an achievement at the expense of the blood of our people, in light of the continuation of all forms of massacres and crimes against our people.”“Press Statement,” Hamas Online Telegram Channel, January 10, 2024.