The bare-faced lies of Hamas terrorist chief: Senior figure says Israeli ‘women, children and civilians were exempt’ during October 7 attack despite footage showing families being murdered

A senior Hamas leader has refused to acknowledge that his terror group killed civilians in Israel during the October 7 attack a month ago today.

Moussa Abu Marzouk, vice chairman of Hamas’ Political Bureau, said “women, children and civilians were exempt” from marauding attacks and that they only targeted conscripts, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Videos filmed by Hamas fighters themselves, as well as other clips, show them shooting unarmed civilians, while bodies of men, women and children were recovered in several southern communities of Israel who were attacked.

Israel says more than 1,400 people were killed in the country, most of them civilians, during the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion that sparked the war.

The Palestinian terror group also took more than 240 people hostage, including children and the elderly, across the border into Gaza.

Israel, which launched a massive bombardment of Gaza and an intensified ground offensive in response to the attack, has vowed to oust Hamas from power.

Emergency personnel stand next to body bags kept outside a property, following the October 7 Hamas attack, in Kibbutz Alumim, Israel, in this social media image posted on November 6. Israel says more than 1,400 people have been killed in the country, mostly civilians killed in the October 7 Hamas incursion that sparked the war

Marzouk’s comments appeared in an interview with the BBC on Saturday.

The channel said it had highlighted the war in Gaza, focusing specifically on the hundreds of hostages held inside the besieged coastal strip.

The 72-year-old, who has been a prisoner in the United States and whose assets are frozen in the UK under anti-terrorism regulations, said the hostages would not be released as long as Israel continued to bomb Gaza.

“We will free them. But we have to stop the fighting,” he said.

Asked about the attack, Marzouk claimed that Mohamed el-Deif, the head of Hamas’ military wing, had ordered the thousands of armed men who flocked to Israel on October 7 to spare civilians and target only soldiers. reservists.

“El-Deif clearly told his fighters ‘don’t kill a woman, don’t kill a child and don’t kill an old man,'” he told the BBC. Claiming that only reserve soldiers were ” targeted”, he insisted on the fact that only “conscripts (…) or soldiers” were killed.

Women, children and civilians were “exempt,” he said.

The BBC said Marzouk appeared irritated at times during the interview.

Asked about video footage clearly showing Hamas fighters shooting and killing civilians, the broadcaster said it avoided answering the question.

He was also asked whether Hamas’ political wing had been informed of el-Deif’s preparation for the attack, the largest terrorist attack in Israel’s history.

Marzouk said the group’s Qassam Brigades military wing “does not need to consult political leaders.” There is no need.’

Hamas’ political wing, based in Qatar, often distances itself from its military forces in Gaza, estimated to number around 40,000.

Children’s toys and personal items lie on the blood-stained floor of a child’s bedroom on October 17, following the deadly infiltration of Hamas gunmen and attack on Kibbutz Beeri.

A woman looks at newly dug graves for victims of the October 7 attack during the funeral of Albert Miles, 80, killed in his home on Kibbutz Beeri during the deadly infiltration of Israel by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, at the cemetery at Kibbutz Revivim, October 30

However, many Western governments, including the UK, do not distinguish between the two. Britain declared Hamas a terrorist organization in 2021, saying at the time: “the approach of distinguishing between different parts of Hamas is artificial. Hamas is a complex but unique terrorist organization.

Marzouk, estimated to have a net worth in the billions of dollars, has been active in Islamic politics since 1968. He was elected the first head of Hamas’ political bureau in 1992 and has served as vice chairman of the bureau since 1997. .

He also founded the Islamic Republic of Palestine, an organization accused by the United States of raising funds for Hamas.

The United States listed him as a Specially Designated Terrorist in 1995.

The same year, he was arrested for activities supporting terrorism and deported after two years. He then settled in Jordan, then Syria, then Cairo in 2012.

Last week, Marzouk said his terrorist group’s political office was not responsible for protecting civilians in the coastal strip.

Palestinian activists drive an Israeli military vehicle seized by gunmen who infiltrated areas of southern Israel in the northern Gaza Strip on October 7.

Smoke rises as Palestinians move away from the Israeli kibbutz of Kfar Aza, October 7

“We built the tunnels because we have no other way to protect ourselves from airstrikes. We are fighting from inside the tunnels,” he said.

Passing the buck further, he added: “Seventy-five percent of the population of Gaza are refugees, and it is the responsibility of the UN to protect them. »

The Palestinian death toll has surpassed 10,000, the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said Monday, including more than 4,100 children.

More than 2,300 people are missing and believed to be buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings, the ministry said. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, and Israel claims to have killed thousands of fighters.