A senior Hamas official has drawn widespread condemnation after claiming in a televised interview that Israel staged the October 7 Nova music festival massacre and that Israeli forces were responsible for the killings.

The remarks were made by Osama Hamdan, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, during an interview broadcast by Norway’s NRK television network. According to summaries circulated by blogger Yehuda Teitelbaum, Hamdan denied that Hamas murdered civilians during the October 7 attacks and advanced a series of conspiracy claims about the events of that day.

Hamdan asserted that the massacre at the Nova festival was carried out by Israeli forces, claiming the attack was conducted by Israeli troops who fired from helicopters under the pretext that they were targeting Hamas gunmen. He further alleged that individuals wearing Qassam Brigade symbols at the festival should be investigated.

Throughout the interview, Hamdan insisted that Hamas never deliberately targeted civilians, hospitals, schools, or mosques. He argued that all such accusations are false and maintained that responsibility for civilian deaths lies entirely with Israel.

He also claimed Hamas holds democratic legitimacy because it won Palestinian legislative elections in 2006, while acknowledging that those were the last elections held and that a significant portion of Gaza’s current population was not yet born at the time.

Hamdan maintained that Palestinians in Gaza are free to criticize Hamas and denied the existence of fear or repression in the territory, contradicting numerous reports and testimonies from Gaza residents describing harsh internal crackdowns.

When asked what responsibility Hamas bears for the devastation in Gaza, Hamdan placed full blame on Israel and refused to acknowledge any role by Hamas in triggering the war.

He openly defended beatings, torture, and public executions of Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel, describing such actions as legal, moral, and consistent with Palestinian law, including executions carried out within 48 hours.

Hamdan categorically rejected the idea of disarmament, stating that Hamas would relinquish its weapons only after a full Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines, the implementation of a mass “right of return,” and international guarantees—conditions he described as non-negotiable.

Asked whether Hamas would attack Israel again despite the destruction in Gaza, Hamdan declined to rule it out, affirming that the “resistance will continue.”

In February 2025, he said Hamas would rebuild and expand its capabilities in Gaza so it could “attack Israel at any time we want.” He also stated that anyone seeking to replace Israel’s role would be treated as Israel, adding that issues related to weapons, leadership, and the resistance movement are not open for discussion.

His remarks mirror earlier statements he made in December 2023, one month after the massacre, when he told a Lebanese television channel that a “war of liberation is coming,” adding that it would not be “just another October 7” and that he did not believe it was far off. When asked whether he regretted the October 7 attacks, he responded, “Regret crushing an entire division of the occupation army?” He also claimed that all 1,200 people killed near the Gaza border “belonged to the occupation army” and said at the time, “We do not regret October 7.”

{Matzav.com}