Senior Hamas Official Ghazi Hamad: We Never Said That We Accept The Two-State Solution; Nobody Expected Such A Barbaric Reaction From Israel; We Had No Alternative To October 7

In a November 20, 2024 interview with Al-Arabiya Network (Saudi Arabia), Ghazi Hamad of the Hamas political bureau stated that speculating whether the October 7 attack was justified, given Israel’s response, is pointless. He emphasized that resistance is the only path to eliminating Israel. Hamad acknowledged that no one expected such a reaction from Israel and questioned what other options Palestinians had besides the October 7 attack. He further noted that Palestinian resistance did not begin on October 7, 2023, but dates back to 1917.

Ghazi Hamad: "The Arab countries are fooling themselves with the story of the two-state solution. Israel will not accept the two-state solution or anything. It is an occupying, fascist, racist country. This country cannot live in a normal atmosphere."

Interviewer: "So you accept the two-state solution, but Israel does not?"

Hamad: "No, no. We never said that we accept the two-state solution. [Israel] is an occupier. How can we possibly accept it? How can I possibly accept a country that killed my children..."

Interviewer: "But Hamas said that it accepts..."

Hamad: "No. We did not talk about the two-state solution. We said that we accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital, and the return of the refugees."

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Interviewer: "If Hamas could go back in time, would you carry out the October 7 [attack] again?"

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Hamad: "What other options did Palestinian people have? If we consider this seriously and responsibly, what other options did we have? We could keep quiet and succumb to the crimes of the occupation, or we could resist. The resistance did not start on October 7. It started in 1917."

Interviewer: "But people say that the heavy toll that came with October 7 was not taken into consideration by the mastermind of October 7, Yahya Sinwar."

Hamad: "No one expected such a barbaric reaction and such crimes on the part of Israel. No one expected this. Absolutely not."

Interviewer: "If you had expected it, would you have still done it?"

Hamad: "No political thinker expected Israel's barbarism to reach such level."

Interviewer: "If you did expect it, would you do it or not?"

Hamad: "No point in going into unknowns. I want to be clear. Resistance is our only pathway to eliminate this occupying, criminal, fascist country."