“Palestinian cause should not die”: Hamas wanted escalation with Israel at all costs

The thousands of deaths, the bombed-out neighborhoods and all the additional human suffering in the Gaza Strip are not the regrettable result of a major miscalculation, but the opposite, writes The New York Times. “It is the necessary price for a great achievement – ​​shattering the status quo and opening a new, more ephemeral chapter in their fight against Israel,” it said.

According to Chalil al-Haja of the Hamas leadership, it was necessary to “change the entire equation and not just have a confrontation.” “We have managed to put the Palestinian issue back on the table and now no one in the region can rest,” the official told the newspaper in Doha.

Hamas leaders have done nothing but praise their October 7 attack on Israel, which killed 1,400 people. The hope is that it will ignite a protracted conflict that will end any semblance of coexistence between Israel, Gaza and the countries around it.

“I hope that the state of war with Israel will become permanent on all borders and that the Arab world will be on our side,” the newspaper quoted Taher al-Nunu, described as a media adviser to Hamas, as saying.

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More successful than planned

From the many interviews that journalists from The New York Times in recent weeks, it appears that the October 7 attack was more successful than planned. Surrounding allies and groups were deliberately not involved to increase the surprise effect. The attack was therefore larger and deadlier than the organization had anticipated. They were able to kill more soldiers and capture more people than expected.

With that attack, writes the American newspaper, Hamas also gave a clear answer to the question of the identity of the terrorist movement. Are they primarily a governing body – responsible for managing daily life in the blockaded Gaza Strip – or are they still fundamentally an armed force, tirelessly committed to the destruction of Israel and its replacement with an Islamic Palestinian state?

“What could change the equation was a big action and it was clear without a doubt that the reaction to that big action would be big,” Chalil al-Haja said. “We had to tell people that the Palestinian cause will not die.”

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The purpose of the Palestinian organization is not to govern the Gaza Strip and provide it with water and electricity. “Hamas, Qassam and the resistance have woken the world from its deep sleep and shown that this issue must remain on the table,” he said. “This battle did not happen because we wanted fuel or labor.” According to him, it was not about improving the situation in the Gaza Strip, but about completely changing the situation.

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