While in Tel Aviv, hundreds of people gathered on Sunday evening in memory of their loved ones killed on October 7, 2023, this is not at all a time for mea culpa for Hamas. The Palestinian terrorist movement on Sunday described its attack carried out a year ago against Israel as “glorious”.
The “glorious attack of October 7 shattered the illusions that the enemy had created, convincing the world and the region of its superiority and supposed capabilities,” said Hamas member Khalil al in a video message. -Hayya, based in Qatar.
Thousands of civilian deaths
This unprecedented attack, which traumatized Israel, resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, the majority civilians, according to a count based on official Israeli figures, including hostages who died or were killed in captivity in the Gaza Strip. Of the 251 people kidnapped on October 7, 97 are still hostages in Gaza, of whom 33 are considered dead.
The Israeli offensive launched in retaliation on Gaza, where Hamas took power in 2007, caused the deaths of 41,870 people, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health of the Hamas government, whose data is considered reliable by the ‘UN.
Stalemate negotiations
A year after this attack, “all of Palestine, in particular Gaza, and our Palestinian people are writing a new history with their resistance, their blood and their tenacity,” added Khalil al-Hayya, who has become the public face of Hamas since the death of the leader of the movement, Ismaïl Haniyeh, on July 31 in an attack in Tehran attributed to Israel.
Our file on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Khalil al-Hayya, who has since participated in indirect ceasefire negotiations led by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, reiterated Hamas’ position that Israel is responsible for the blocking of negotiations. “What we rejected yesterday, we will not accept tomorrow, and what the occupation (Israel) did not manage to impose by force, it will not obtain at the negotiating table,” he said. he added.