More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in the month since Hamas’ terrorist attacks inside southern Israel, the group’s health ministry in Gaza says.

But Hamas officials say the mounting death toll, believed to include thousands of children, has not caused the group to regret its actions in southern Israel, which Israeli officials said killed 1,400 people.

In fact, Hamas leaders say that their goal was to trigger this very response and that they’re still hoping for a bigger war. It’s all part of a strategy, they say, to derail talks over Israel normalizing relations with regional powers — namely, Saudi Arabia — and draw the world’s attention to the Palestinian cause.

Hamas, these officials say, is more interested in the destruction of Israel than what it sees as the temporary hardships faced by Palestinians under Israeli bombardment.

“What could change the equation was a great act, and without a doubt, it was known that the reaction to this great act would be big,” Khalil al-Hayya, a member of the group’s governing politburo, told The New York Times in an interview.

  • 5BC2E7@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    They could have abandoned their goal and seek coexistence. But using your logic ask yourself what choice does israel have as a response to an enemy like hamas?

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      What is happening in the West Bank right now where there is no Hamas? Are you purposely ignoring that israel is giving paramilitary terrorists weapons to shoot innocent Palestinians AND protects those Israeli terrorists with their army?

      ISRAEL is the party that does not want peace. They have openly stated they want to ethnically cleanse Palestine. Their government has stated wanting to nuke Gaza.

      • 5BC2E7@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I am sure that they have all sorts of people and some of them were always this way but I suspect they were radicalized with the terrorist attacks. I mean at a personal level if someone kills your family you’d probably don’t care about nuances or context. It just happens that they have more means to carry out their “vengeance”.

        • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          My man these terror Zionists have been shooting innocent Palestinians in the west bank wayyy before Oct 7.

          Oct 7 was done as a response to these terror Zionists. Hamas cited it as a direct reason for their counter offensive.

          You can use your comment to justify the Hamas members, but not the israeli colonists purposely seeking conflict and killing Palestinians.

    • ASprigOfSage@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Not bombing the shit out of innocent civilians and not committing war crimes is a great start for coexistence. To late for that now though… the only course from here is either a complete cease fire and the releasing of Palestine back to the plaistinians or complete brutal genocide of an entire group of people. It seems the governments of the world are attempting to choose the later…

      • 5BC2E7@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        This has been developing for longer than recent history. I sort of agree that israel should have continued one of the last 2-3 wars until the fundamentalist extremists surrendered or were killed. Instead of giving land back and attempting to serk peace. I think it was a mistake to try 5-6 times. after 2 or 3 it’s clear the enemy doesn’t want anything less than a war of extermination so they should give them that.

        • ASprigOfSage@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I guess the question remains, Who is the enemy to you? Is it Hamas? Is it the people of Palestine? Is it the children and innocent people being slaughtered in mass? Where does the violence stop? What is the limit of “acceptable losses”? Why do the cries and suffering of one group get listened to more than another group?

          Fuck Hamas and fuck the Israeli government. Bring peace, not death and war.

          • 5BC2E7@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            I consider Hamas as the enemy of israel. And i am not sure if I consider hamas an enemy of palestine but they are certainly bad for the ones that are not in favor of a war of extermination.

            I understand that palestinians even had a civil war because too many of them were against peace even after they lost the war. I suppose israel had concerns of escalation and didn’t join the war in favor of those who wanted coexistence.

            So ideally palestinians should be “telling on” hamas to israel. Hamas is the enemy in general.

    • ninjan@lemmy.mildgrim.com
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      8 months ago

      The same as Hamas, not kill civilians indiscriminately. But both sides are horrible and I’m not the least bit interested in a breakdown of who’s the worst. They both suck, and have for more than half a century.

      That’s why I say this is a shit storm loooong in the making.

      • 5BC2E7@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        So you implied that hamas didn’t have a choice but now you say they did have a choice? Which one is it?

        • ninjan@lemmy.mildgrim.com
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          8 months ago

          I meant war and conflict in general as what choice do they have. Didn’t you read all of the first post? Killing civilians is always inexcusable.