Newsweek obtained an exclusive interview with a senior official in the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in which he provided his assessment of a year of war with Israel, and enumerated a series of strategic, tactical and political victories that were amplified by the intensification of attacks by groups allied with Iran throughout the region, according to the magazine. .
Newsweek initially mentioned Hamas’s unprecedented attack in the “Battle of the Al-Aqsa Flood” from the Gaza Strip on Israel, and the war that followed as the longest and bloodiest, noting that the Palestinian Ministry of Health counted, a year later, the deaths of more than 42,600 people in Gaza. Most of them were women and children, while the Israeli forces reported that 350 of their soldiers were killed and about 100 Israelis remained detained in Gaza.
According to the newspaper, Hamas and other Palestinian factions continue to announce new operations against Israeli forces and cities, at a time when the resistance axis, allied with Iran and active in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, has escalated its attacks on Tel Aviv, and Tehran itself has launched the second largest barrage of missiles on Israel. .
In the midst of the ongoing violence and chaos, Hamas political bureau member and spokesman Bassem Naim said – in his interview with the magazine – that insecurity will continue in the Middle East and beyond until the group’s goals related to the long-term Israeli-Palestinian conflict are achieved.
Goals not achieved
Naim said that the “message of the Al-Aqsa flood” was clear from the beginning, which is that no one in the region or outside it will enjoy security, stability, or prosperity unless the Palestinian people obtain their rights to freedom, dignity, independence, the right to self-determination, and the return of refugees.”
Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has fought wars with Arab countries and faced an ongoing Palestinian rebellion, until the Oslo Accords were concluded in the 1990s and granted limited self-rule to the Palestinians, but it ultimately failed to achieve a two-state solution and resolve the basic conflict.
Hamas, which was formed in the 1980s, opposed the peace agreements with Israel, and engaged in a conflict with the traditionally dominant leftist Fatah movement, following its victory in the elections in 2006, before gaining control of Gaza in 2007, according to the magazine.
Netanyahu announced 4 goals for the current war, which include neutralizing Hamas as a military and political organization, making Gaza unable to pose a threat to Israel in the future, recovering all detainees who remain in Gaza and returning his citizens from communities affected by the conflict in the north and south.
Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told Newsweek magazine the progress Israel has made so far in achieving these goals. He said, “We are on the right track, and we still have a long way to go.” He said that despite its losses, Hamas was able to launch a major missile attack from Gaza on the anniversary of the war, and pointed out that 101 detainees remain in Gaza.
For his part, Naim pointed to three goals set by Netanyahu: “to destroy the resistance, especially Hamas, to displace the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip, and to recover the prisoners inside the Strip.” He believed that “any observer and follower of this battle after a year will find that Israel has failed to achieve any of these goals.” “The three.”
Disable normalization
Regarding eliminating Hamas, Naim says that Israel “may have been able to kill thousands, destroy homes, schools, mosques and churches, and destroy water, communications, electricity and other infrastructure and networks, but it was not able to defeat the resistance,” nor was it able to restore prisoners, and even killed many of them.
Naim said that the ICC investigation into Israel, along with a separate investigation by the International Court of Justice, highlighted another major setback for Israel, “by destroying the narrative it had woven over 70 years of occupation and conflict.” “No one has returned,” Naim said. He is deceived by the story that Israel is the most civilized country in the region that respects the values of human rights, democracy, etc.
Naim added, “The most important thing is that such investigations made it impossible for Israel to integrate into the region and continue the normalization project based on the Abraham Accords,” which was launched by the United States in 2020, and witnessed Israel establishing diplomatic relations with the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.
Today – as Naim says – “If this project has not been stopped, it has at least been delayed for many years. When Hamas launched this operation, it saw that the Palestinian issue was at stake, and that it was planning to completely erase it, in conjunction with Israeli plans to expand control over the West Bank.” West towards eventual annexation, as well as consolidating its authority in the city of Jerusalem, including Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Now, not only have many of these plans been disrupted – as Naim said – but Israel has not yet recovered from the initial “devastating blow” directed at it a year ago, neither “at the level of the army, which failed to repel this attack, nor at the level of intelligence, which failed.” In his prediction,” and thus Israel no longer has the image of “a superpower, an invincible army, and long-armed intelligence.”
External factor
However, there is another external factor that proved important in the context of the war, which is the American role in providing large-scale military aid to Israel and even carrying out strikes against the resistance axis groups in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen throughout the war.
The administration of US President Joe Biden revealed a three-stage ceasefire plan, which received the support of the United Nations Security Council, and both Israel and Hamas expressed their willingness to accept it, but shortly afterward they presented different interpretations of what the agreement actually entails, and each of them threw out Blaming others for obstructing progress.
While American frustration with Israel’s position appeared to be growing, the expansion of the war to the Lebanese front and the growing risk of a direct clash between Iran and Israel have sidelined ceasefire talks for the time being, and the looming presidential elections weighed heavily on the White House’s calculations.
Naim said, “The United States of America, because of its loss of leadership balance during the election period and because of its permanent bias in favor of the Israeli occupation, is working against its strategic interest in the long run.” He added, “This region, which represents a strategic interest for the United States, will not be stable, and no country will be Stable, until the Palestinian issue is resolved, and the Palestinians obtain their rights to freedom, independence, and the return of refugees.”
Naeem added, “Hatred for the United States is increasing in the region every day, and the younger generations in the region and outside it clearly realize that the United States is lying when it claims that it is moving in the world to spread democracy, equality, and freedom, and that this battle has proven the falsity of all these claims.”