‘Palestinian state is the fruit of Oct 7’ – Hamas rejects calls to disarm; says its weapons led to push for statehood

Hamas demands 250 aid trucks per day before resuming hostage-ceasefire negotiations

Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamed, a member of Hamas' political bureau, told Al-Jazeera on Saturday that the recent push for a Palestinian state is “one of the fruits of October 7.” He also rejected demands to disarm.

“The weapons constitute the Palestinian cause,” Hamed said. “Our weapons equal our cause.”

“No Palestinian is saying now that the resistance must end,” he continued, "because surrendering our weapons means the end of the resistance, in the end of the Palestinian cause.”

“We, as Palestinians, will not surrender our weapons,” the Hamas official stated. “Surrendering our weapons will only come as part of the political solution. Israel can only dream that we will ever surrender our weapons to it.”

Despite violating several laws of warfare, Hamed also repeated the Hamas claim that its methods of fighting Israel are not illegal, because “we are fighting for our freedom.”

Hamed has previously echoed this argument, asserting that any action taken against Israel is “justified.”

#ICYMI: Hamas Official Ghazi Hamad: We Will Repeat the October 7 Attack Time and Again Until Israel Is Annihilated; We Are Victims - Everything We Do Is Justified #Hamas #Gaza #Palestinians pic.twitter.com/afJVtSHujK
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) November 4, 2023

“We are not terrorists and we are not using any terrorist methods,” Hamed stated. Hamas has been labeled a terror organization by many nations and international institutions.

Saying that “October 7 was a response to all the Israeli crimes over 77 years,” Hamed also said the massacres in Israel “yielded three very important historic achievements.”

He said that the events on Oct. 7, “brought the Palestinian cause back” into focus.

“Why are all these countries recognizing Palestine now?” Hamed asked. “Had any country dared to recognize the state of Palestine prior to October 7?”

However, over 140 of the 193 countries in the United Nations had already recognized a Palestinian state before the Hamas massacres of Oct. 7. In recent days, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada have announced their intention to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer denied that his country’s decision was a reward for Hamas; however, the terror group’s recent statements, including those from Hamed, demonstrate that it believes the actions of the Western nations to be the result of its atrocities against Israel.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has criticized the decision to recognize a Palestinian state, saying that, at the present moment, it “only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th.”

The move by the three Western countries appears to overlook repeated statements from Hamas – including those made after Oct. 7 – rejecting a two-state solution and refusing to recognize Israel.

Hamed also asserted that the world has turned against Israel, and no longer believes it to be “a beautiful democratic country.”

“The whole world is acting against Israel,” Hamed stated, citing pro-Palestine rallies in Western countries. He also boasted about the ICC arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, concluding, “Israel is now accused of genocide and ethnic cleansing.”

On Sunday evening, seemingly in response to rising international pressure on Israel, Hamas demanded that a minimum of 250 humanitarian aid trucks enter the Gaza Strip daily as a precondition for resuming negotiations on a hostage-ceasefire deal.

Hamas had previously agreed to allow the International Red Cross to deliver food to the Israeli hostages provided the "humanitarian corridors be opened on a normal and permanent basis for the passage of food and medicine to all our people in all areas of the Gaza Strip, and that all forms of enemy air raids be halted during the times when parcels are received for [Israeli] prisoners."