TEHRAN- The Palestinian resistance group Hamas has published an 18-page report outlining the reasons why it carried out its military operation on October 7?, and what happened on that day. 

The report, entitled "Our narrative... Operation al-Aqsa Flood", is the first official publication by Hamas that goes into details about the October 7 attack after more than 110 days of the Israeli war on Gaza. 

The section that covers the October 7 operation highlights the goals behind taking military action in addition to debunking the Israeli narrative on the day of the operation. 

In this chapter, Hamas clarifies the circumstances of October 7 and "the Israeli fabricated accusations and allegations". 

The report says the operation "targeted the Israeli military sites, and sought to arrest the enemy’s soldiers to pressure 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." 

Avoiding harm to civilians, especially children, women and elderly people is a religious and moral commitment by all the al-Qassam brigades’ fighters, Hamas stresses. 

"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." 

It adds that "if there was any case of targeting civilians it happened accidently and in the course of the confrontation with the occupation forces." 

After the Zionist criminal Baruch Goldstein committed a massacre in 1994 against Palestinian worshippers at the al-Ibrahimi Mosque in the occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron), Hamas says it offered an initiative to the Israeli regime to avoid targeting civilians during combat "by all parties". 

This initiative and several others that followed it fell on deaf ears by the regime, according to the report, with the Israeli military continuing to target and kill Palestinian civilians. 
 

“Maybe some faults happened"

“Maybe some faults happened" on October 7 during the implementation of the operation "due to the rapid collapse of the Israeli security and military system, and the chaos caused along the border areas with Gaza," the report by Hamas says.

However, the report says "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." 

What the Israeli occupation promoted, in allegations, that the al-Qassam Brigades on October 7 were targeting Israeli civilians are nothing but complete lies and fabrications, the report notes.  

"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." 
The publication offers many details that go against the Israeli narrative. 
 

 ‘Many Israelis were killed by army and police due to their confusion’

"Video clips taken on that day – October 7 – along with the testimonies by Israelis themselves that were released later showed that the al-Qassam brigade's fighters didn’t target civilians, and many Israelis were killed by the Israeli army and police due to their confusion."

The report adds, "It has also been firmly refuted the lie of the '40 beheaded babies' by the Palestinian fighters, and even Israeli sources denied this lie. Many of the Western media agencies unfortunately adopted this allegation and promoted it." 

The suggestion that the Palestinian fighters committed rape against Israeli women was fully denied, including by the Hamas movement, the publication notes. 

"A report by the Mondoweiss news website on December 1, 2023, among others, said there is lack of any evidence of ‘mass rape’ allegedly perpetrated by Hamas members on October 7 and that Israel used such allegation to fuel the genocide in Gaza." 

According to two reports by the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on October 7 and the Haaretz on November 18, many Israeli civilians were killed by an Israeli military helicopter especially those who were in the Nova music festival near Gaza where 364 Israeli civilians were killed, the reports points out. 

The two reports said the Hamas fighters reached the area of the festival without any prior knowledge of the festival, where an Israeli helicopter opened fire on both the Hamas fighters and the participants in the festival, the Hamas report highlights. 

"The Yedioth Ahronoth also said the Israeli army, to prevent further infiltrations from Gaza and to prevent any Israelis being arrested by the Palestinian fighters, struck over 300 targets in areas surrounding the Gaza Strip." 

Hamas says other Israeli testimonies confirmed that the Israeli army raids and operations by the regime's soldiers killed many Israeli captives and their captors. 

The report underscores how the occupation army bombed the houses in the Israeli settlements where Palestinian fighters and Israelis were inside in a clear application of the army's notorious "Hannibal Directive" which clearly states that “a dead civilian hostage or soldier is better than being taken alive (by the resistance)" to avoid engaging in a prisoners swap with the Palestinians. 

Furthermore, the report cites how the occupation authorities revised the number of their killed soldiers and civilians from 1,400 to 1,200, after finding that "200-burnt corpses had belonged to the Palestinian fighters who were killed and mixed with Israeli corpses." 
 

‘Only the Israeli army possesses planes that burned and destroyed areas’

"This means that the one who killed the fighters is the one who killed the Israelis, knowing that only the Israeli army possesses military planes that killed, burned and destroyed Israeli areas on October 7." 

The heavy Israeli aerial raids across Gaza that led to the death of nearly 60 Israeli captives also prove that the Israeli occupation army does not even care about the lives of their captives in the besieged enclave, Hamas argues. 

The report states that it is a matter of fact that a number of Israeli settlers around Gaza were armed and clashed with Palestinian fighters on October 7. 

"Those settlers were registered as civilians while the fact is they were armed men fighting alongside the Israeli army." 

Hamas notes that when speaking about Israeli civilians, it must be known that conscription applies to all Israelis above the age of 18 (males who served 32 months of military service and females who served 24 months) can all carry and use arms. 

Other details are also provided in the report about the regime's extreme lack of care toward civilian deaths.  

"We are confident that any fair and independent inquiries will prove the truth of our narrative and will prove the scale of lies and misleading information in the Israeli side," Hamas states.

It adds, "This also includes the Israeli allegations regarding the hospitals in Gaza that the Palestinian resistance used them as command centers, an allegation that was not proven and was refuted by reports of many Western press agencies."

In the report Hamas also calls on "the free peoples across the world, especially those nations who were colonized and realize the suffering of the Palestinian people, to take serious and effective positions against the double standard policies adopted by powers/countries that back the Israeli occupation." 

‘Palestinians want to live in freedom and dignity’

The report says Hamas wants Palestinians "to live in freedom and dignity". 

The Gaza-based group points out that the Palestinian people's battle against occupation and colonialism did not start on October 7 but 105 years ago, which involved 30 years of British colonialism of Palestine and 75 years of Zionist occupation. 

Detailing the ethnic cleansing campaigns of Palestinians by British/Zionist plots alongside the immigration of Zionist Jews to Palestine, the report explains how Palestinians were denied the right to self-determination of their own land and how Israeli occupation grew over the decades. 

"Over these long decades, the Palestinians suffered all forms of oppression, injustice and further land grabs, the denial of their fundamental rights in line with the regime's apartheid policies," according to the report. 

It cites the example of the Gaza Strip as being under a "suffocating" blockade since 2007, turning the enclave into the "world's largest open-air prison". 

Since 2007, the report says, the Gaza Strip has been subject to five Israeli wars, all of which were initiated by the occupying regime. 

According to official figures, in the period between January 2000 and September 2023, the Israeli occupation killed 11,299 Palestinians and injured 156,768 others, the great majority of them civilians. 

Unfortunately, the report says, the U.S. administration and its allies failed to pay attention to the suffering of the Palestinian people over the past years "but provided cover to the Israeli aggression". 

The U.S. "only lamented the Israeli soldiers who were killed on October 7, without seeking the truth of what happened, and wrongfully walked behind the Israeli narrative in condemning an alleged targeting of Israeli civilians." 

U.S. and its Western allies always treating "Israel as a state above the law"

The Hamas report underlines Israeli violations and brutality that have been documented by many UN organizations and international human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and even documented by Israeli human rights groups. 
Hamas accuses the U.S. and its Western allies of always treating "Israel as a state above the law", despite the fact "the UN had issued more than 900 resolutions over the past 75 years in favor of the Palestinian people", all of which the Israeli regime failed to abide by. 

The report highlights the U.S. vetoes at the UN showing its complicity in Israeli aggression. 

In the report's introduction to the events of October 7, Hamas poses the following question: 

"What did the world expect from the Palestinian people to do in response to the following: 

Israeli Judaization plans to the holy al-Aqsa Mosque and the desecration of Islam's third holiest site by Israeli settlers. 

The practices of the extremist and right-wing Israeli government which is practically taking steps towards annexing the entire West Bank and al-Quds (Jerusalem) into so-called "Israeli sovereignty" amid plans on the Israeli official table to expel Palestinians from their homes and areas. 
The thousands of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails who are experiencing deprivation of their basic rights as well as assaults and humiliations under the direct supervision of the Israeli fascist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. 

The unjust air, sea, and land blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip over 17 years. 

The expansion of the Israeli settlements across the West Bank in an unprecedented level, as well as the daily violence perpetrated by settlers against Palestinians and their properties. 

The seven million Palestinians living in extreme conditions in refugee camps and other areas who wish to return to their lands, and who were expelled 75 years ago.
The failure of the international community and the complicity of superpowers to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. 

What was expected from the Palestinian people after all of that? Hamas asks. 

The group emphasizes it could not wait on the UN any longer and took the initiative to defend the Palestinians, their land, rights and sanctities in line with acts of defense "enshrined in international laws, norms and conventions".