Senior Hamas official defends ‘high price’ of Oct 7 for Palestinians, saying attack created ‘golden moment’

A senior Hamas official has defended carrying out the deadly October 7 attacks on Israel, telling CNN that it created a “golden moment” for the Palestinian cause despite the tens of thousands of deaths in Gaza.

In a wide-ranging interview in Doha, two weeks after surviving an Israeli air-strike on a Hamas compound in the Qatari capital, Ghazi Hamad highlighted growing international condemnation of Israel’s offensive in Gaza and the spate of countries who have recognized Palestinian statehood. He was unapologetic about the consequences for Palestinian civilians in Gaza, who have borne the brunt of Israel’s unrelenting attacks on Gaza.

“You know what is the benefit of October 7th now? …If you look to the (United Nations) General Assembly yesterday, when about 194 people opened their eyes and looked to the atrocity, to brutality of Israel and all of them, they condemned Israel. We waited for this moment for 77 years,” he said.

“I think this is a golden moment for the world to change the history,” he added.

His comments came on the same day as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the October 7 attack in a speech to the UN – saying that Hamas would have no role to play in a Palestinian state – and one day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to address the assembly.

Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, 2023, and took more than 250 hostages in a savage attack. It triggered a brutal retaliation from Israel which Gaza’s health ministry says has killed more than 65,000 people, most of them women and children.

The events of October 7 were unprecedented in Israeli history, but with the widespread destruction, starvation and such a soaring toll of dead and injured in Gaza, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu has faced claims that its response has been disproportionate – even amounting to genocide.

Challenged by CNN on whether Hamas shares some culpability – on whether the attacks were worth the thousands who have died in Gaza, the senior Hamas official refused to accept even some responsibility and said: “I know the price (is) so high, but I’m asking again, what is the option?”

In recent months, some in Gaza have voiced their anger at Hamas, accusing the group of refusing to end the war, leaving people to suffer without food and water.

During the interview, CNN showed Hamad footage of people in Gaza urging Hamas to give up power. In one clip shown to Hamad, one anti-Hamas protester says: “Our message to Hamas is, stop gambling and adventuring with us. You are disconnected from reality. Especially since the Hamas leadership is located outside of Gaza. Some people say they killed with our children’s flesh, while they sat in hotels.”

Hamad refused to look at the footage for more than a few seconds, pushing the iPad displaying the images away. He said that he knew people were suffering, but blamed their disgruntlement on Israeli aggression.

“I know, I have, I have seen,” he said. “I know people are suffering.”

Hamas has responded brutally to those who criticize its actions in Gaza.

In April, A 22-year-old Palestinian man was tortured and killed by Hamas militants after he criticized the group publicly and participated in rare anti-Hamas protests in Gaza, according to his family. In May, Palestinians demonstrated against Hamas in northern Gaza, in what appeared to be the largest protest against the militant group since its attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Hamad spoke to CNN while Israel’s assault on Gaza City was well underway. Israel is seeking to fully capture the enclave’s largest city, saying it remains a Hamas’ stronghold.

Hamas has repeatedly been accused by Israel of using civilians as human shields, and a message from Hamas’ military wing Al-Qassam Brigades a week ago indicated that the remaining hostages in Gaza City have been “distributed within the neighborhoods of Gaza City,” effectively putting them in the same situation.

“We will not be concerned for their lives as long as (Israeli Prime Minister) Netanyahu has decided to kill them,” the Al-Qassam Brigades statement read.

Asked whether hostages are being used to deter Israel’s invasion, Hamad denied that Hamas is using the remaining hostages as human shields and insisted that they are all treated “with Islamic principles.”

Some of the freed hostages have emerged famished and gaunt, while others have claimed sexual abuse in captivity, allegations which the United Nations has also highlighted.

In response, Hamad said that “there is no one proof to prove that we use these things against people.”

“Our premises (are those of) Islam.”

Asked whether Hamas would heed calls to grant the Red Cross access to the hostages, Hamad demurred, calling the situation on the ground “complicated.”

Sat in a brightly lit hall with armchairs lining the wall around a poster of Jerusalem, with a framed photograph of the late Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in the Iranian capital Tehran last year, Hamad said the US is just as much to blame as Israel over the September 9 attack on Qatar which targeted the Hamas leadership.

Hamad was among the group’s leaders targeted in that attack. He described his survival as “a miracle.”

The Israeli strike came at a time when Hamas officials were reviewing a United States ceasefire proposal. The strike ensured negotiations came to a sudden halt, Hamad said.

“Frozen,” Hamad told CNN, when asked for the talks’ current status.

Part of the blame lay with the United States, he said, suggesting it was failing to act in good faith and was instead doing Israel’s bidding.

“This is the problem with the Americans, they cannot prove they are honest and neutral mediators,” he said.

Israel’s conditions to end the war are clear: return the hostages, living and dead, and destroy Hamas in exchange for a ceasefire that would start negotiations.

Most of the international community, while upping the pressure on Israel to stop fighting, are also equally clear that Hamas must disarm immediately. Hamad’s comments underlined how far that demand is from the group’s intentions.

“The (armed wing) of Hamas is a legitimate and legal weapon which is used all the time against an occupation,” he said.

If a Palestinian state was established, he said, Hamas’ weapons would be directed to the Palestinian army.

“But you could not exclude Hamas from the Palestinian … questions and Palestinian situation, because Hamas is playing a positive role,” he said.

“We will never surrender. We will never surrender.”

CNN’s Zeena Saifi and Ibrahim Dahman contributed reporting.