Hamas: Al-Aqsa Flood Necessary, Normal Response to ‘Israeli’ Conspiracies against Palestinians
By Staff, Agencies
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has strongly defended as a necessary step its October 7, 2023 Al-Aqsa Flood operation against the “Israeli” entity, which was followed by a brutal onslaught against the Gaza Strip.
The movement made the comments in an official statement released in English and Arabic on Sunday.
It further stated that Al-Aqsa Flood was a normal response to all “Israeli” conspiracies against the Palestinian people.
“Al-Aqsa Flood 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, [and] reclaiming the Palestinian rights...," Hamas said.
The movement added that “Israel” has 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 Al-Quds.
The movement also referred to the history of Western and Western-backed acts of aggression against Palestinians, saying, “The battle of the Palestinian people against occupation and colonialism did not start on October 7, but started 105 years ago, including 30 years of British colonialism and 75 years of Zionist occupation.”
Hamas added that Operation al-Aqsa Flood exclusively targeted “Israeli” military bases and every effort was made to capture only “Israeli” troops in order to free Palestinian prisoners held by the entity.
“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,” Hamas clarified.
Emphasizing that “if there was any case of targeting civilians, it happened accidently and in the course of the confrontation with the occupation forces,” the movement noted that “Many ‘Israelis’ were killed by the ‘Israeli’ army and police due to their confusion as al-Aqsa Flood Operation led to rapid collapse of the ‘Israeli’ security and military system.”
Elsewhere in the statement, the movement called for “the immediate halt to the ‘Israeli’ aggression on Gaza, [as well as] the crimes and ethnic cleansing committed against the entire Gaza population” to allow the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The movement added that it wants to hold the “Israeli” entity “legally accountable for what it caused of human suffering towards the Palestinian people, and to charge it for the crimes against civilians, infrastructure, hospitals, educational facilities, mosques and churches.”
“We tell these countries -- especially the US administration, Germany, Canada and the UK -- that if they really want justice to prevail as they claim, they ought to announce their support for the course of an investigation into all crimes committed in the occupied Palestine and to lend their full support to the international courts to effectively do their job,” Hamas said.
The movement, meanwhile, rejected any foreign efforts to decide Gaza's future.
“We categorically reject any international or ‘Israeli’ projects aimed at deciding the future of Gaza that only serve to prolong the occupation. We stress that the Palestinian people have the capacity to decide their future and to arrange their 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.”
