A top Hamas official made the rarest of concessions in an interview with the New York Times: Mousa Abu Marzouk suggested the group’s infamous 2023 raid into Israel might have been a mistake. Referring to Israel’s massive response in Gaza, he said, “If it was expected that what happened would happen, there wouldn’t have been Oct. 7.” Marzouk, the head of Hamas’ foreign relations office, also suggested he was not privy to the scale of the raid itself, in which militants killed 1,200 and took about 250 people hostage. The resulting Israeli counter-attack has led to the forced relocation of about 2 million residents of the Gaza Strip.
The remarks come ahead of the next round of negotiations between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire, though it was not clear whether he is an outlier within the group’s leadership. After the interview aired, a Hamas spokesman told the Times of Israel that the raid “marks a strategic turning point in the Palestinian national struggle” and laid the blame for the devastation in Gaza solely on Israel. Marzouk, 74, also suggested Hamas might be open to the idea of disarmament in Gaza, a sticking point in any talks, though the group itself distanced itself from that view. It also said Marzouk’s overall statements were taken out of context and “incorrect.” (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)
Article by:Source:
