A Hamas official said that only a small number of commanders knew about the operation against Israel, hoping that Iran and the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah would join the battle if Gaza is “subjected to a war of annihilation.”
Ali Barakeh, a member of the Hamas leadership in exile in Beirut, spoke to the Associated Press (AP) news agency on Monday, as Israel bombed Gaza and promised a complete blockade of the territory ruled by the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement.
Saturday’s attack caught Israel’s military and intelligence services completely off guard, as hundreds of Hamas gunmen entered through holes in the border fence and charged into several towns, where they killed hundreds of soldiers and civilians and captured hostages.
Barakeh said the attack was planned by about half a dozen senior Hamas commanders in Gaza and that not even the group’s closest allies were informed in advance about the timing of the attack.
“Only a handful of Hamas commanders knew about zero hour,” he said.
The official acknowledged that Iran and the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah helped Hamas in the past, but since the 2014 Gaza war, Hamas has been producing rockets and training fighters, he added.
Barakeh also denied that the attack, planned for more than a year, was aimed at destroying US efforts to convince Saudi Arabia to normalize ties with Israel.
Instead, he said the attack was motivated by a series of measures taken by Israel’s far-right government last year, indicating that he hoped the operation, dubbed “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm,” would be prevented or limited by Israel.
“We were surprised by this huge collapse. We planned to make some profits and take hostages to exchange [por presos]. This army was a paper tiger,” he highlighted.
The claim that Hamas planned only a small operation is contradicted by the fact that around a thousand fighters are estimated to have participated in the raid, by land, sea and air.
Israel declared total war and vowed to punish Hamas like never before, and the mobilization of 300,000 Israeli reserves raised the prospect of a ground invasion or even reoccupation of Gaza. The Israeli army claims to have killed hundreds of militants and bombed numerous Hamas targets.
Barakeh said that so far Hamas has only deployed a small number of its own forces: around 2,000 Hamas fighters have participated in the latest fighting, out of an army of 40,000 in Gaza alone.
“We have prepared well for this war and to face all scenarios, even that of a long war,” he added. “We will end the life of the Zionist entity if the aggression does not stop in Gaza.”
In response to the Hamas surprise attack, Israel bombed several Hamas facilities in the Gaza Strip from the air, in an operation it called “Iron Swords.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel is “at war” with Hamas.
Source: TSF
