The Hamas leader breaks his silence. The terror attack launched by Hamas on Israel on October 7 was a reaction to the policies of the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of the Islamist movement, Ismail Haniyeh, said Wednesday in a speech broadcast by Hamas media.
The Palestinian group's military wing launched a surprise attack on October 7 in the middle of Shabbat. From the Gaza Strip, the terrorists swept into Israeli villages near the Palestinian enclave, killing nearly 1,400 people, the majority of them civilians, according to Tel Aviv, and capturing several hundred hostages.
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Haniyeh said the attack was a reaction to the "racist policies" of Benjamin Netanyahu's Israeli government toward the Palestinians.
"We warned all parties we spoke to before this war that the continuation of the policies of oppression and violence by Netanyahu and his fascist government, the aggression against the Al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) and Islamic and Christian shrines, the construction of settlements and the unleashing of extremist settlers to sow destruction, Chaos and death will not go unpunished," he said.
"We warned them that this would not go unpunished and that the explosion was imminent and that it was imperative to curb the actions of this criminal and his gang. Unfortunately, no one listened to our calls, on the contrary," he added.
"No stability" without "return"
Since then, the Israeli army has been shelling the Palestinian enclave on a daily basis and launched an assault on the northern Palestinian territory last Friday. The IDF shelling reportedly killed more than 8,700 Gazans, according to Hamas' Health Ministry, although the figure could not be independently verified.
As Lebanon's Hezbollah threatens to attack Israel from the north and Jordan announced on Wednesday the "immediate" recall of its ambassador to the Jewish state, the Hamas leader also spoke of regional stability.
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"There will be no security or stability in the region and outside the region if the rights of our people to freedom, independence and return are not realized," he said.
Ismail Haniyeh also accused Israel of committing "massacres" in Gaza to cover up its "failures". "We say to the enemy ... that your efforts to cover up your failures will not save you from a resounding defeat," he warned.