I. October 7, 2023 – Another Day That Will Live in Infamy.
On the morning of October 7, 2023, Hamas, along with other terrorist groups operating in Gaza (which will hereinafter be collectively referred to as “Hamas”), fired an estimated 5,000 rockets from Gaza at Israeli cities and communal settlements. Simultaneously over 3,000 Hamas fighters, accompanied by Palestinian civilians, breached the Israel-Gaza border barrier at multiple points on land and by gliders and entered Israel from the Mediterranean Sea. They proceeded to attack residential areas and military facilities, killing over 1,200 Israeli civilians and soldiers, and abducting over 200 civilians and soldiers, taking them back to Gaza.
After responding to the attack and retaking control of the area infiltrated by Hamas fighters, Israel declared war on Hamas, vowing to eliminate Hamas from Gaza.
The events of October 7, 2023, far exceeded the scope, intensity, and resulting Israeli casualties of any prior Hamas attack. Men, women, children, and infants were killed by bullets, beheadings, mutilation, and other brutal forms of inflicting death. Women and young girls were raped, tortured, and then killed. Families were murdered in their homes, butchered in the streets, and over 250 people were slaughtered at an outdoor music festival. Evidence of sexual violence was rampant. But for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, an additional untold number of Israeli civilians would have been killed. Even then, it was single deadliest attack on Israel in its history, and the single greatest killing of Jews since the Holocaust.
II. Hamas Statements Regarding Its Attack and Strategy.
On October 7, 2023, Al Jazeera issued several reports. In its interview with Saleh al-Arouri, Deputy Chief of Hamas’s Political Bureau, he is quoted as saying:
“We managed to kill and capture many Israeli soldiers. The fighting is still on.”
“Our detainees in [Israeli] prisons, their freedom is looming large. What we have in our hands will release all our prisoners. The longer fighting continues, the higher the number of prisoners will become.”
“This is not a [hit-and-run] operation; we started an all-out battle. We expect fighting to continue and the fighting front to expand. We have one prime target: our freedom and the freedom of our holy sites.”
“We will continue to fight until we are rewarded with victory, freedom and independence.”
“All scenarios are now possible and we are ready for an [Israeli] land invasion.”
Al Jazeera also reported that a Hamas spokesman said that the Israelis taken captive were spread through-out all areas of Gaza. Al Jazeera reported that Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said the captives were being held in “safe places” and tunnels.
Al Jazeera reported that, in an audio message, Mohammed Deif, a senior Hamas military commander, said the rocket fire marked the start of “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.” “We’ve decided to say enough is enough.” “This is the day of the greatest battle to end the last occupation on Earth.”
Al Jazeera quoted Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, as saying: “We say to all countries, including our Arab brothers, that this entity, which cannot protect itself in the face of resistors, cannot provide you with any protection.” “All the normalisation agreements that you signed with that entity cannot resolve this [Palestinian] conflict.”
Al Jazeera also reported that in a speech broadcast on Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television, Haniyeh stated: “We are on the verge of a great victory and a clear conquest on the Gaza front. Enough is enough, the cycle of intifadas [uprisings] and revolutions in the battle to liberate our land and our prisoners languishing in occupation [Israeli] prisons must be completed.”
On October 7, 2023, Jad Melki, Director of Media Research at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, is reported by Al Jazeera as observing that Hamas’ preparedness with quickly relayed videos of the attack marked a new direction in Hamas strategy: “The synchronisation of the media and military machines, you can tell images were shot and cut in a professional way, they were even branded. The operation was from the sea, air, and land but also on the airwaves and cyber-sphere. The troops moving in were carrying cameras that are equally important to machine guns. Everything appears to have been prepared in advance. That’s a major strategic shift.”
III. Hamas’ “Great Act” Will Actually Lead to the Liberation of the People of Gaza and Hamas’ Demise.
Israel’s invited ground invasion of Gaza is in full force, with repeated confirmations that it will not stop until Hamas is eliminated, even in the face of constant calls for a ceasefire and an actual ceasefire while there was a hostage-prisoner exchange. Whether intended or not, Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack crossed the line of Israel’s continued acceptance of periodic terrorist attacks and wars, which no country has a right to demand that Israel continue to accept.
Statements by Hamas indicate that it thought the attack, coupled with Israel’s expected (and hoped for) overwhelming response with resulting civilian deaths, would cause the Arab world to rally to Hamas’ defense and offense. As stated by Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya in an interview with The New York Times published on November 8, 2023: “What could change the equation was a great act, and without a doubt, it was known that the reaction to this great act would be big.” (emphasis added) “We had to tell people that the Palestinian cause would not die.” “We succeeded in putting the Palestinian issue back on the table, and now no one in the region is experiencing calm.” The irony is that it is not the Arab world rallying to Hamas’ defense, but leaders of the free world.
Hamas has admitted that it knew its actions on October 7, 2023, would result in the death of many civilians in Gaza. Hamas chose to take money and material intended to improve the living conditions for the people of Gaza and use it instead to arm itself for the October 7 attack and prepare itself to engage in the urban warfare throughout Gaza that it knowingly and intentionally invited. With that, Hamas also knowingly and intentionally decided to subject the civilian population of Gaza, once again, to the horrors of war. As Hamas media consultant Taher El-Nounou reportedly told The New York Times: “I hope that the state of war with Israel will become permanent on all the borders, and that the Arab world will stand with us.”
It is ironic that the calls for a ceasefire from so-called pro-Palestinian demonstrators, some world leaders, and the UN as a voting body, are contrary to the “permanent state of war” sought by Hamas. A ceasefire only serves to leave Hamas as the malevolent ruler of Gaza and allow it to remain to continue the permanent state of war it wants and will openly acknowledges it will engage in after a ceasefire.
Terrorist organizations do not govern for peace; they govern to achieve ideological goals through violence, using the people they control as they see fit to achieve their goals. And in the case of Hamas, they govern to make their leaders rich, while bidding time and serving as a distraction from the real threat, Iran and its march to becoming a nuclear power. Peace is Kryptonite for terrorists and terrorism.
The Jews survived the Nazi plan for the “final solution” to exterminate the Jewish people. They survived as the world was blind to or doubted what was happening to them. World War II had barely ended when the Jews again faced hatred and a plan for their extermination by Arab nations. For 75 years, Israel has survived in the face of an enemy that seeks to achieve what the Holocaust did not. For the last 18 years, the people of Israel have shown a patience to survive in the face of constant terrorist attacks in full view of the UN and world leaders, who now, in condemning Israel for defending itself, cannot find the mental fortitude to condemn their attacker (but actually act to support Hamas).
Israel is now doing what history dictates it must do. The Jews did not have the power to eliminate the enemy that sought to destroy them in World War II. Today they do have the power to eliminate such an enemy and must use that power to do so regardless of the demands of those blind to Israel’s and the Palestinian peoples’ need to do so.
IV. Conclusion
There is no country in the world with the means to resist, that would tolerate and suffer bombardment and attacks from a neighboring country, or a terrorist group residing therein, as Israel has done. Israel has taken the bad with the good that came with the hand it was dealt in 1948. But, on October 7, 2023, and the days and now months after, Israel is rightfully not going to stand by and let the world, this time with eyes wide open, watch Hamas slaughter Jews ever again.
In my next Post, we will explore the facts as to “Who and What is Hamas,” to set the stage for Posts setting forth the chronological summary of the Israel-Palestinian Conflict beginning in 1917.
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