[[link removed]]

HAMAS IS PROUD OF ITS ‘ACHIEVEMENTS’ BUT HASN’T CONVINCED THE
GAZANS WHO PAY THE PRICE  
[[link removed]]


 

Amira Hass
December 27, 2025
Haaretz
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ In a self-congratulatory document published to mark the two-year
anniversary of its October 7 attack, Hamas doesn't explain how the
armed struggle that it says is necessary has never stopped colonialist
Israel _

Destruction in Khan Yunis in Gaza on Thursday. With its document,
Hamas is targeting Palestinians in the diaspora, the wider Muslim
world and the large solidarity movement around the globe, Credit: Abed
Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Reuters

 

Just like well-run institutions – governmental or nongovernmental
– that submit periodic reports on their activities and performance,
Hamas has just published an assessment of its October 7 attack and the
aftermath up to the cease-fire that was sealed two years later.

Like such institutions, Hamas is presumably thinking about the
stakeholders who will read its report. In the document released
Wednesday – 36 pages in Arabic, 42 in English – it's clear that
the people of the Gaza Strip aren't among the stakeholders. They can't
be partners to the picture of achievements and resilience described in
the text.

In conversations with friends and family, but not for publication or
discussion with the Israeli media, even loyal Hamas supporters in the
enclave have questions about the attack and the considerations behind
it. They aren't getting answers.

Those who aren't supporters of Hamas in Gaza, people who demand that
Hamas take stock of itself, won't find a hint of this in the text.
They'll find "disdain for their blood and suffering … a blatant
ignoring of reality, an attempt to convince people that the biggest
tragedy in the modern history of Palestine and Gaza was a 'national
necessity' and a historic achievement," as one Gazan who remained in
the Strip wrote.

A woman who left the enclave at the beginning of the war
[[link removed]]
and has read Hamas' document concludes from it that "these people will
never admit their fatal mistakes and will never feel the suffering and
tragedies of our people, since they are insensitive and have no
conscience."

These two writers were never supporters of the rival organization,
Fatah, and cannot be suspected of being pro-Israel. Both of them –
like all Palestinians and not only them – will gladly sign the
report's main framing of the history of the conflict: Zionism as a
colonialist-settler movement, with Israel as a dispossessing and
expelling entity by nature. Not for a moment do they forget that
Israel chose, as a policy, to kill their relatives, friends and
neighbors while destroying their homes and all of Gaza.

But they are also among the not-so-few people in Gaza demanding that
Hamas take some responsibility and not just bask on its
self-congratulatory laurels for the "glorious crossing" of the border,
and for October 7's 20 "most prominent achievements" (meaning that
there are more), as noted in the report. Among the achievements listed
are the isolation of Israel, its internal disintegration and the
sabotaging of the normalization process with Arab countries
[[link removed]].

Anyone looking for critical voices such as the ones above can find
them, but they aren't the dominant voices, and they certainly don't
get the place they deserve in reports by key Arab media outlets such
as Al Jazeera.

Unlike the Gazans mentioned above who called Hamas' statements
"delusions," others are likely to be impressed by the alternate
reality that emerges from the organization's report, which is titled
"Our Narrative: Al Aqsa Flood: Two years of Steadfastness and the Will
for Liberation."

With its document, Hamas is targeting Palestinians in the diaspora;
the Ummah (the Muslim world), a term repeated several times in the
report; Palestinians in the West Bank
[[link removed]];
and the large solidarity movement supporting Palestine and Gaza, which
is mentioned as one of the achievements. These communities remind us
that Hamas' rule in Gaza is perceived as a jumping-off point. The
group still strives to be in a position where it can lead the entire
Palestinian nation as a member of the Palestine Liberation
Organization, which needs to be revamped after being totally emptied
of content by the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas.

But Hamas doesn't intend to wait until all this is achieved. It's
building its strength in places where this is possible. The ostensible
success of the armed struggle is a tool for building this strength.

"The armed struggle," as a mirror image of the glorification of
official armies in regular states, remains a seminal ethos and vital
component in the construction of political power in organizations that
covet such power. This was true for the Palestinians and other nations
in other periods. Since the Ummah is an important addressee, the text
gently links this ethos to Islam. Anyone not listening to the voices
of criticism and rage in Gaza might be impressed by the report's
praise for the use of arms, while ignoring the report's falsehoods and
contradictions.

In continuing the long tradition of exaggerating the number of dead
Israelis in military clashes with Hamas, the authors claim that 5,942
Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza. This number is attributed to IDF
Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir.

Overall, according to "medical reports" quoted in the text, Israel
suffered 13,000 fatalities on all fronts (Lebanon
[[link removed]],
the West Bank and Gaza). The report is also mendacious regarding
Gaza's social cohesiveness. Under the shadow of incessant bombing, the
uprooting from homes, impoverishment and death, Gaza's society
experienced unsurprising phenomena of internal disintegration, the
exploiting of weakness, and war profiteering in despairing dimensions.

The text also lies when it praises the refusal of Gazans to surrender
to attempts by Israel to expel them. People simply couldn't leave.
People who could leave left the enclave and many still fantasize about
leaving. These facts are incompatible with the narrative.

One explanation by the report's authors for choosing armed struggle
notes a fact: Israel sabotaged the implementation of the Oslo Accords
by continuing to build settlements. Conveniently, the authors fail to
mention that in the '90s, Hamas was just as determined to sabotage the
accords and Yasser Arafat's path as it did in a series of suicide
bombings.

The authors note October 7 as a chapter in the history of the armed
struggle, but forget to examine the results of earlier chapters that
failed to stop Israel's takeover of land, as Israel did the opposite.
The suicide bombings in the '90s were used by Israel as an explanation
or pretext for halting the transfer of territory in Area C of the West
Bank to the Palestinians.

The attacks in the first decade of the century led to the building of
the separation barrier and the final severing of Gaza from the West
Bank
[[link removed]].
In the second decade, Hamas and Islamic Jihad didn't even try to repel
the growing violence by settlers in the West Bank and the expanding
settlements.

Is the objective of Hamas – which declares that it's impossible to
isolate it and make it disappear – to liberate all of Palestine, or
to obtain a Palestinian state alongside Israel? As in the messages it
has been sending almost since its establishment in 1987, the current
message is ambiguous and confusing.

In the report, the prevailing tone is for the liberation of all of
Palestine. In a historical review starting in 1948 and even earlier,
it says that "the Zionist project ... has not realized that its fate
will be like that of every wave of invasion that has targeted our
blessed, holy land throughout history: it will either be expelled from
it or buried within it."

On the other hand, it notes as an achievement the increasing number of
countries that have recognized the "State of Palestine" within the
1967 borders. The document states what needs to be done to stop
"Judaization" in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, but doesn't refer
to what is happening inside Israel itself. In a sentence typical in
its vagueness, the report describes a vision of freedom, liberation of
the land, including the holy city of Jerusalem, and the "establishment
of our state."

The report isn't needed for indirect or direct negotiations with
Israel. The self-assurance it exudes – whether real or false –
confirms what it says: Hamas isn't preparing to leave the stage.

_Amira Hass is the Haaretz correspondent for the Occupied
Territories._
[[link removed]]

_Born in Jerusalem in 1956, Hass joined Haaretz in 1989, and has been
in her current position since 1993. As the correspondent for the
territories, she spent three years living in Gaza, which served of the
basis for her widely acclaimed book, "Drinking the Sea at Gaza." She
has lived in the West Bank city of Ramallah since 1997._
[[link removed]]

_Hass is also the author of two other books, both of which are
compilations of her articles._
[[link removed]]

_Haaretz_
[[link removed]]_
is an independent daily newspaper with a broadly liberal outlook both
on domestic issues and on international affairs. It has a journalistic
staff of some 330 reporters, writers and editors. The paper is perhaps
best known for its Op-ed page, where its senior columnists - among
them some of Israel's leading commentators and analysts - reflect on
current events. Haaretz plays an important role in the shaping of
public opinion and is read with care in government and decision-making
circles. Get a __digital subscription_
[[link removed]]_ to Haaretz._

 

* Hamas
[[link removed]]
* Gaza
[[link removed]]
* Palestinians
[[link removed]]
* Palestine
[[link removed]]
* Israel
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Bluesky [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]