More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in the month since Hamas’ terrorist attacks inside southern Israel, the group’s health ministry in Gaza says.

But Hamas officials say the mounting death toll, believed to include thousands of children, has not caused the group to regret its actions in southern Israel, which Israeli officials said killed 1,400 people.

In fact, Hamas leaders say that their goal was to trigger this very response and that they’re still hoping for a bigger war. It’s all part of a strategy, they say, to derail talks over Israel normalizing relations with regional powers — namely, Saudi Arabia — and draw the world’s attention to the Palestinian cause.

Hamas, these officials say, is more interested in the destruction of Israel than what it sees as the temporary hardships faced by Palestinians under Israeli bombardment.

“What could change the equation was a great act, and without a doubt, it was known that the reaction to this great act would be big,” Khalil al-Hayya, a member of the group’s governing politburo, told The New York Times in an interview.

  • QuarterSwede@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    The IDF rarely shows mercy. I don’t really understand what the surrounding countries are thinking. If they want to escalate things to remove the status quo they certainly are. But at what cost?

    • CoderKat@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      I think they’re trying to get Israel to act in such a way that they finally lose the American support. Israel currently gets to do whatever it wants without consequence because the US will seemingly back them unconditionally. Also, many countries, people, and organizations are afraid to criticize Israel because they get called anti-Semitic. But I think that only works while Israel can manage to convince people it’s the “good one”.

      • rengoku2@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        The whole world condems Israel, it is only America’s issue.

    • Thief_of_Crows@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      It’s like asking what the allies were thinking invading Normandy. Like, yes it’s a bad idea, but it needed to happen, and trying it once gets you one try closer to the 1000th try that actually works. Somebody’s gotta do it, so why not us?

      • teichflamme@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        That is one of the worst comparisons I have ever seen.

        Normandy was an strategic attack at a high cost.

        This conflict is so one sided that people here like to call it genocide.