File photo- Palestinians wave their national flag and celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis southern a year a go. AP
In a statement titled “A Flood Towards Liberation”, Hamas said that the 7 October operation was “a natural response to Zionist schemes aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause."
Hamas also urged escalating resistance against the widening Israeli aggression beyond Gaza on other Arab and Islamic countries.
“The Israeli occupation forces had committed the most heinous crimes and massacres over the past year and waged the most horrific genocidal war against our people in modern history," Hamas said.
However, the statement added, the resilience of Gazans and their steadfastness has "shattered all of the occupation’s plans."
The Palestinian movement, which has been engaged in fierce battles against the Israeli army in Gaza for over a year, also reaffirmed the right of the Palestinian people to resist the occupation "by all means".
It insisted that recent Israeli assassinations of its leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh, the head of its political bureau, would only "strengthen the resistance and its determination to defeat the occupation."
Hamas reiterated that it had positively engaged with all initiatives to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza war, maintaining its stance on a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
The group held the US responsible for the continued crimes and genocide in Gaza, calling on Washington to cease its bias toward Israel.
Hamas also considered Israel’s expansion of its aggression to Arab and Islamic countries, a" real threat to regional security and stability," urging Arab and Islamic nations to stop all attempts to normalize relations with Israel.
The group further called on Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and inside Israel, as well as those in refugee camps, to "escalate all forms of resistance."
It also appealed to "free nations and movements" to join the fight for the defence of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Israeli war on Gaza has killed and wounded more than 140,000 Palestinnians, destroyed most of the civilian infrastrucure, and left 90 percent of the population displaced and on the verge of famine amid a deadly blockade.
On Sunday, in a televised statement, Khalil Al-Hayih, a member of the group's political bureau based in Doha, said the Aqsa Flood operation has put the Palestinian cause in the front centre of world politics.
Before 7 October, the Israelis wanted to liquidate the Palestinian cause and turn it into a more humanitarian issue, he said.
However, the Al-Aqsa Flood operation and the struggle of the past year has exposed Zionist myths, and pushed the struggle for Palestinian national rights as the most important issue glogally, noted Al-Hayih.
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