Saleh al-Arouri, a Hamas spokesperson, denied Thursday that his organization targeted civilians saying they only focused on attacking the Israeli army near Gaza, The Times of Israel reported.
Al-Arouri also suggested that Hamas’s attack was preventive in nature. “We knew that there were [Israeli] plans to launch a massive attack against us after the [Jewish] holidays,” the Hamas official said, The Times of Israel reported. (RELATED: Hamas Spokesperson Claims They Have Been Planning Israel Attack For Two Years)
Roi Kais, an Israeli journalist for Kan 11, tweeted Thursday that the spokesman “places responsibility on ordinary residents of Gaza who entered as part of the attack and where civilians and claims that 1,200 operatives in the military wing of Hamas participated in it,” according to a translation of the statement.
Hamas deputy chief lies: We don’t target civilians, we only attacked IDF https://t.co/CiVROYv6DE . Click to read ⬇️
— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) October 12, 2023
This has not been the first time that Hamas has denied they targeted Israeli civilians following their Saturday invasion.
“No, we don’t have killed any civilians. But I have to say, to tell you as a world-respected journalist, we have also to redefine what does it mean a civilian. I cannot consider a settler … who has stolen my [inaudible], carrying guns, burning the city of Huwara is a civilian,” another Hamas spokesman, Dr. Basem Naim, told Sky News on Monday.
These claims by Hamas are rated as false by Check Your Fact. Eyewitness testimony, including from an on-call doctor, described piles of dead civilians. “I’ve never seen such a disdain for humanity,” that doctor said. A volunteer for a body retrieval organization recovered the various body parts of victims killed by the terrorist organization. “This is not something humans do,” the volunteer told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
More than 1,300 Israelis, most of them civilians, have been killed following Hamas’ attack, The Times of Israel reported.