By Michael Pröbsting, Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 18 July 2024, www.thecommunists.net

 

 

 

Contents

 

Introduction

 

The sources of the “investigation”

 

A “Nazi” operation in “three waves”?

 

The written evidence

 

What was the character of the 7 October attack?

 

What about individual crimes which took place on 7 October?

 

And how many Israelis were killed by Israelis?

 

Liberation struggles and criminal acts

 

 

* * * * *

 

Introduction

 

 

 

Two big newspapers – Israel Hayom and the German BILD – have published a so-called “investigation” about the events of 7 October 2023 when Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel. Well, it is a very special “investigation”. More precisely, it a propaganda act which, nevertheless, is not without interest. ^[1]

 

The nature of this “investigation” is hardly surprising if one takes into account the character of these two newspapers. Both are, of course, rabid Zionist. They are the most read newspapers in their respective countries. Israel Hayom, which is distributed for free, is owned by the family of the late Sheldon Adelson. [2] According to Forbes, he was the third-richest person in the U.S. Adelson was the largest donor for Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. And he was a major supporter of Israel’s right-wing Likud party and of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. [3]

 

The German BILD is also a notorious right-wing tabloid paper which makes the British yellow press look like science magazines. It is known for manipulating stories which is why it has been the paper which received by far the highest number of reprimands in Germany. After the assassination of Rudi Dutschke in April 1968, the headquarters of BILD became the natural target of outrage of demonstrators since it was this very paper which had created the atmosphere for such a crime. ^[4] Its founder, the late Axel Springer, was a journalist responsible for anti-semitic propaganda during the Nazi rule and became a right-wing anti-communist as well as enthusiastic supporter of Israel in the post-war period. ^[5] Springers personal advisor and head of security was Paul Schmidt-Carell, a former SS-Obersturmbannführer and leading Nazi propagandist during World War II. [6]

 

The self-declared purpose of the investigation is to characterize the 7 October attack as a Nazi mass murder. Consequently, the newspapers refute the statements of Hamas which said in January 2024: “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct. 7 targeted the Israeli military sites, and sought to arrest the enemy’s soldiers to pressure on the Israeli authorities to release the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails through a prisoners exchange deal. Therefore, the operation focused on destroying the Israeli army’s Gaza Division, the Israeli military sites stationed near the Israeli settlements around Gaza.

 

Avoiding harm to civilians, especially children, women and elderly people is a religious and moral commitment by all the Al-Qassam Brigades’ fighters. We reiterate that the Palestinian resistance was fully disciplined and committed to the Islamic values during the operation and that the Palestinian fighters only targeted the occupation soldiers and those who carried weapons against our people. In the meantime, the Palestinian fighters were keen to avoid harming civilians despite the fact that the resistance does not possess precise weapons. In addition, if there was any case of targeting civilians; it happened accidently and in the course of the confrontation with the occupation forces.” ^[7]

 

As the Israeli-German investigation reports, “Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza and architect of the surprise attack, claimed in communications with his people during the war that ‘things got out of control.’ He stated, ‘People got carried away, and it shouldn't have happened.’”

 

In contrast, Israel Hayom and BILD claim that “evidence suggests that Hamas is indeed a disciplined movement”, that the acts were components “of a complex, extensive, and sophisticated system that Hamas efficiently and cunningly wove in preparation for its murderous attack” and that “it was an engineered, planned, and precise operation that is very unlikely to have ‘gotten out of control.’”

 

 

 

The sources of the “investigation”

 

 

 

What are the sources of the Israel Hayom / BILD “investigation”? According to their own account, the authors base their report on “documents captured during the maneuver in Gaza (…) along with conversations with survivors from the Gaza area kibbutzim, sources involved in interrogating terrorists, and researchers of Palestinian society.”

 

This by itself tells a lot about the character of such an “investigation”. Where did they get the Hamas “documents” from? Naturally, from Israel’s intelligence agencies. (The legend to the pictures of these documents give as the source “private”. Well, such documents are certainly not in “private hands” but the journalists were probably not allowed to admit that they got it from Shin Beit or Aman.) Likewise, guess who are the “sources involved in interrogating terrorists”? And guess also what are the circumstances under which these “terrorists” are interrogated!

 

The “survivors from the Gaza area kibbutzim” are certainly a legitimate source. But given the fact that these are people who have lived for years in these fortified villages of the Zionist state – built in order to keep the population in Gaza imprisoned – one can take it for granted that these are hardened supporters of Israel’s policy of terror against the Palestinian people.

 

Tellingly, the Israel Hayom / BILD investigators do not mention those Israeli citizens who reported that they were treated well by Hamas fighters. And why did they not interview any Palestinian source about the events of 7 October? Well, you know the answer!

 

This brings us to the next point: who are the “researchers of Palestinian society” in this investigation? Certainly no Palestinians or Arabs! The only “experts” – it pains me to use such a word for these people – who are quoted in the report are rather Israelis or Germans. One of them – Dr. Ido Zelkovitz from the University of Haifa – “analyses” the “poison machine” of Hamas. “The massacre is an unequivocal product of Hamas' religious preaching system in the Gaza Strip over the years.” Consequently, he paints Palestinians as fanatical animals who can not but rape and loot. “Even an ordinary Gazan citizen who enters Israel doesn't feel that he's acting for something material, but performing these actions – murder, rape, looting – for the sake of a religious war.”

 

Another cited so-called “expert” – Prof. Michael Wolffsohn from the Federal Army University in Munich – also tortures readers with his “wisdom”. “According to him, students in Europe and the U.S. who express solidarity with Hamas ‘are actually expressing solidarity with the 'values' of the Nazi Einsatzgruppen.’” It is telling that the Israel Hayom / BILD hacks introduce this man as “one of the world's leading researchers on the analysis of German-Israeli relations.”

 

In summary, the hard-core Zionist authors, at the behest of hard-core Zionist publications, make an “investigation” based on evidence provided by Israel’s intelligence agencies and hard-core Zionist “experts” in order to arrive, surprisingly, at hard-core Zionist conclusions. Could there be a better example for an echo-room?!

 

 

 

A “Nazi” operation in “three waves”?

 

 

 

As the authors write, the purpose of their investigation is to show that Hamas are “sadistic Nazis” (the headline of the report!). According to them, the operation on 7 October “was not only explicitly directed at Israeli civilians but was deliberately carried out by Gazan civilians who were an inherent part of the grand plan Hamas had devised. According to academic researchers in Germany and Israel, parts of this plan are reminiscent of practices used by the Nazis to exterminate European Jews, such as the use of Einsatzgruppen, the SS "operational units" that advanced in the wake of the German army's invasion of Eastern Europe and participated in the planned and systematic extermination of Jews.“

 

At least now readers will recognize that this is a bizarre “investigation” made by people who are either incompetent liars or simply incompetent. As every amateur historian knows (and even the Israel Hayom / BILD simpletons could have find out by spending 30 seconds on Google), the SS Einsatzgruppen were not civilians but long-time trained military personal. But don't expect pigs to fly!

 

Anyway, the “investigation” claims that the 7 October attack was planned by the Hamas leaders as an operation in “three waves”. The first wave was executed by the Nukhba units, the special force of Hamas’ armed wing – the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. The second wave were “vengeful and hate-filled Gaza residents … a reserve mobilization” of whom many were “armed Hamas members not affiliated with the Nukhba forces, or members of other terrorist organizations who were not privy to the attack plans. The people of the "second wave" may not have all trained for the attack and were not equipped with orderly commands, but somehow they knew exactly what to do.”

 

The “third wave” were "looters" or "mob", “civilians, not necessarily armed with firearms, who simply took advantage of the opportunity presented to them. (…) There was a mixed crowd of all types of people there, including 12-year-old children”. Furthermore, “Gazan women also participated in the attack.” In one of the few pictures published by the newspapers one can see a group of four children riding with their bicycles in a conquered kibbutz. Another Israeli witness reports about a Gazan woman who spent hours cooking and singing in the house of a kibbutz.

 

In fact, the surprise attack of Hamas fighters against the Israeli military in the morning was of such an unprecedented act that it could not but provoke a gigantic sensation in the Gaza strip. It was, as we said already in our very first statement a few hours after the beginning of the attack, a “historic event.”[8]

 

The Palestinian people have been expelled and oppressed for three-quarter of a century. Most people in Gaza are refugees, many did originally live in the very places where these Israeli kibbutzim and cities are located. For 17 years, they were forced to live under the Israeli blockade and military aggression. And now, for the first time in history, the Palestinian resistance succeeded in dealing a huge and humiliating blow to the Zionist occupier! For the first time in 17 years, the inviolable wall had broken down!

 

In such an electrifying situation, it was only logical that thousands of people in Gaza felt the desire to cross the border and to enter the fallen kibbutzim – these fortified villages of the Zionist state – in order to keep the population in Gaza imprisoned. They did hardly need instructions from above for that!

 

In contrast to the absurd claims by Israel Hayom and BILD, this could not but have been a completely chaotic situation which was under the control of no one. The “investigators” rest on mythical conspiracy theories when they claim that “the people of the "second wave" may not have all trained for the attack and were not equipped with orderly commands, but somehow they knew exactly what to do.” Well, “somehow” – what a profound “explanation”!

 

 

 

The written evidence

 

 

 

The Israel Hayom / BILD “investigation” provides two written evidences for their conclusions. One looks like an official document signed by the commander of the Gaza Brigade, bearing the logo of Hamas' military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and dated from 6 October. It gives military instructions for the fighters when and where to meet, which equipment to take with them and which not, etc. “The order concludes by summarizing the main goal of the October 7 operation: "Take a large number of soldiers prisoner in the first moments (of the fighting) and send them into the Gaza Strip (emphasis in original). Signed: Your brother, the jihad fighter, Abu Saheeb al-Haddad, commander of the Gaza Brigade."

 

This is interesting and even the hard-core Zionist authors have to admit that “Abu Saheeb's military order does not explicitly instruct his men to kidnap and murder civilians or commit atrocities.” Well, it does not only fail to “explicitly instruct“ fighters to do such things, it does not even mention civilians at all!

 

Naturally we are not in a position to make a definite judgement, but this document makes a rather authentic impression.

 

In contrast, the second written evidence looks rather flawed. It is a handwritten document “captured during the IDF ground maneuver in the Gaza Strip” which supposedly “details the full scope of "Al-Aqsa Flood.”

 

According to this document, “Hamas' original goal was to take control of 221 settlements in the south, including the cities of Netivot, Ofakim, and Sderot, and expel the ‘settlers’ from them. These were supposed to flee the using their own cars, with ‘priority to (expelling) women and children, and taking men aged 17-50 as hostages.’ The Hamas leadership estimated that Israel would respond forcefully to the attack, ‘not only with strikes but also with an atomic bomb.’ According to the document, they were prepared to absorb even that. The conquest operation was planned to be accompanied by an international media and legal effort, branded as ‘Returning Home.’ Gaza civilians also had a role in the plan. ‘For extra security, a popular mass mobilization should be carried out for a symbolic return to villages and their re-conquest,’ it stated. ‘This war is a war of life and death.’ This grandiose plan didn't ultimately materialize. But even during October 7, Hamas carried out a ‘popular mass mobilization.’”

 

Again, it is difficult to make a definite judgement, but there are very strong reasons to doubt that this as an official document of Hamas or its Qassam Brigades. First, in contrast to the first document, it bears no official logo but is handwritten (!) on a paper which appears to be a torn-out page from a calendar dated with “Saturday, the 3 December 2016”! Really, Hamas leaders detail their top-secret plan in hand-writing on a torn-out page from a calendar nearly a decade old?!

 

It rather seems to us that this is either a doctored “document” written by a funny Shin Beit agent who wanted to muck around the silly Israel Hayom / BILD journalists; or it was indeed written by a Hamas official but rather represents his individual ideas but not an official plan.

 

We are all the more doubtful that this document represents an official Hamas plan since it contents lacks any sense. One needs a sizeable military force in order to “to take control of 221 settlements in the south, including the cities of Netivot, Ofakim, and Sderot“. These three cities alone have a combined population of 115.000!

 

Israeli sources claim that 2,900 Palestinian militants infiltrated Israel from Gaza on 7 October. They even say that Hamas also wanted to invade Ashkelon and Kiryat Gat (which have a combined population of 200.000). ^[9]

 

Sure, Hamas might have planned to infiltrate all these places and to attack the Israeli military forces there – for example they took over the police station in Sderot and destroyed its computer system. However, it is much more likely that this were conceived as spectacular hit-and-run attacks and not as part of a plan to “reconquer” and hold all these places. Such an operation would have extremely exposed their fighters and risked their complete annihilation since they would not have had any chance standing their ground in such a large, unknown and hostile environment (in contrast to Gaza). Why should Hamas have risked the destruction of their military forces? They clearly where not heading for Armageddon but had long-term plans – this is why they planned to take hostages in order to exchange them with Palestinian prisoners.

 

Add to all this that most of these Hamas militants were clearly not prepared for any serious long-term military operation. The Israel Hayom / BILD journalists themselves write, describing the scene of a kibbutz after the attack with many “dead terrorists” laying around, that “most of them are wearing sandals”. Does anyone seriously believe that Hamas was sending fighters in sandals to conquer Sderot and Ashkelon?! Irrespective if one shares the political views of Hamas’ leaders or not, they are certainly not idiots – in contrast to the intellectually challenged Israel Hayom / BILD hacks.

 

 

 

What was the character of the 7 October attack?

 

 

 

Fundamentally, Hamas’ surprise attack on 7 October was a political and military operation. On one hand, they wanted to get as many Israeli captives as possible in order to exchange them for thousands of Palestinian prisoners. On the other hand, they were following Clausewitz’ maxim that “war is politics by other means“. Hence, they wanted to deal a humiliating strike against the Israeli state and its military, to undermine the international prestige and the moral of the settler state. They intended to put the issue of Palestine again in the center of world public and, in particular, of the public opinion of the Arab and Muslim countries. This should also have undermined the efforts of the U.S. and Israel to accelerate the treacherous “normalization” process between the Zionist state and Arab regimes (the so-called “Abraham Accords”). [10]

 

As Marxists, we fully accept the necessity to resist against the oppressor by all kind of means. Hence, we consider the armed struggle against the Zionist state and its armed forces as legitimate. However, the RCIT does not support the political views of Hamas which we consider as a petty-bourgeois nationalist and Islamist organization. Neither do we share its strategy which can be characterized as a combination of armed struggle, alliances with Arab and Muslim states and negotiations with Israel.

 

However, as we have always explained, the struggle for the national liberation of the Palestinian people should be focused on the mobilization and organization of the masses in Palestine as well as in the Arab countries. Naturally, this does not exclude other forms of struggle. But in the end, Israel can only exist because of its international support by Western imperialism and the Palestinian liberation struggle can only succeed as part of an international struggle, most importantly the Arab Revolution which needs to bring down the pro-imperialist dictatorships. [11] “The road to Jerusalem first goes via Cairo, Amman, Damascus and Beirut.” [12]

 

To make a general characterization, we shall say that the surprise attack of 7 October was a rebellion of the slaves against the slave holders, a strike of the oppressed against the oppressors. It reflected the unbroken spirit of resistance of the Palestinian people to fight for their freedom and their right to return to their homeland which has been occupied by the Zionist state since 1948. It was aimed at dealing a blow to the prestige of Israel as the invulnerable dominating power in the Middle East. This is also how it was understood by the masses in the Arab and Muslim countries and by opponents of Western imperialism all around the world.

 

 

 

What about individual crimes which took place on 7 October?

 

 

 

Such a fundamental characterization does not mean that we would condone all individual acts of 7 October. Quite the opposite, we have always opposed killing of innocent civilians and we certainly denounce any form of rape. A socialist army would simply shoot any rapist.

 

At the same time, we have always rejected the ridiculous claims of Zionist media which try to discredit 7 October as a “terrorist orgy” with numerous “massacres” and “mass rapes”. ^[13] In fact, a number of such reports – like the notorious story promoted by the New York Times – already had to be withdrawn or at least became disputed. [14]

 

In this context, it is not without interest that the authors of the Israel Hayom / BILD “investigation” are rather cautious in repeating the discredited lies about “mass rape” or babies who were “beheaded” or “baked in an oven”. They rather speak about “that in at least one case of an Israeli casualty, the head was severed” or “several beheaded bodies were found, and at least one woman was raped.”

 

As we already said, we do not deny that individual crimes did take place. In itself, this is not surprising given the horrific conditions in which the population of Gaza was forced to live under the Zionist occupation for years and decades. What does Israel expect if it terrorizes a whole people over such a long period?! That they arrive with flowers and thank-you cards?!

 

Furthermore, one must not ignore a number of reports from Israeli captives that they were treated well by Hamas fighters. ^[15]

 

In any case, such individual crimes were subordinated features and did not shape the main character of the 7 October attack. Moreover, such acts were not part of any planning by Hamas as it has always said and as it is indicated in the above-cited official document of al-Qassam from 6 October.

 

 

 

And how many Israelis were killed by Israelis?

 

 

 

In addition, the Israel Hayom / BILD “investigators” don’t mention the fact that an unknown but significant number of Israelis were killed on 7 October not by Palestinians but by their own army. As it is well known – and has been recently officially acknowledged in a Haaretz article about an internal army report – Israeli generals had implemented the notorious Hannibal directive on this day. This is an Israeli military policy that stipulates the use of maximum force in the event of a soldier being kidnapped. In reality, this directive means that it is preferable to kill their own people – military or civilian – than being captured by the Palestinian resistance. A number of cases have already been documented where Israeli tanks, drones or helicopters fired at their own citizens so that they don’t become captives of Hamas. ^[16]

 

Critical readers might object that the Israeli Hannibal killing would have been relevant only in a very few cases. But this is most likely not true. One Israeli military, Colonel Nof Erez, said in a Haaretz podcast that 7 October “was a mass Hannibal”.

 

Furthermore, as it is well known, Israel initially claimed that about 1,400 citizens would have died on 7 October. Later, this figure was revised to 1,200 (and even later to 1,139 killed, including 695 civilians). What was the explanation for this miscalculation? Mark Regev, the official spokesperson for the Israeli government, acknowledged in an interview with MSNBC on 16 November 2023: “We originally said, in the atrocious Hamas attack upon our people on October 7th, we had the number at 1,400 casualties and now we’ve revised that down to 1,200 because we understood that we’d overestimated, we made a mistake. There were actually bodies that were so badly burnt we thought they were ours, in the end apparently they were Hamas terrorists.” ^[17]

 

Now, if these bodies were so badly burnt beyond recognition, they were obviously killed by extremely explosive munition which Hamas fighters of course did not have when they crossed the border. No, the victims must have been killed by Israeli bombs, rockets or artillery. It is evident that all Israelis who were in the same car or house with these fighters (or close to these places), were also killed by the very same Israeli weapons. One can only agree with the conclusion of a critical researcher who wrote that “a significant proportion of civilian deaths [on 7 October, Ed.] resulted from Israeli military actions.” Is it an accident that Israel rejects any international investigation of what happened on 7 October?!

 

 

 

Liberation struggles and criminal acts

 

 

 

Furthermore, it is particularly outrageous to hear accusations from supporters of Israel – a state which has brutally oppressed the Palestinian people since three-quarter of a century, slaughtered thousands of them in four Gaza wars, which systematically tortures and sexual abuses Palestinians in Israeli prisons and which is currently committing one of the worst genocides in modern history!

 

In general, only cynical hypocrites or people without any clue about liberation struggles can ignore the fact that great uprisings of the oppressed rarely take place without individual crimes. Slave revolts often were accompanied by the killing of civilians or rape of white women (think e.g. about the Nat Turner uprising in Virginia in 1831). The Algerian insurrection against the French settlers or uprisings of Africans against the white masters – all these events included massacres and rape against civilians. Or think about the advancing Soviet army which entered Germany and Austria in 1945 and where a number of rapes took place.

 

All such acts are worthy of condemnation and socialists oppose such acts under any circumstances. However, they are first and foremost a product of the brutalizing conditions of terror which the oppressed had to suffer before. Furthermore, such criminal acts don’t alter the general character of the above-mentioned revolts as legitimate uprisings of the oppressed against the oppressor.

 

Finally, concerning the outcry of the Israel Hayom / BILD journalists about “looting” on 7 October: this is certainly a particular ridiculous outrage even for Zionist standards! The people in Gaza are living in poverty and misery imposed by Israel since many years. How could on be surprised that Gazan citizens appropriate materials when they enter for the first time in their lives comparatively wealthy places like the Zionist kibbutzim?!

 

We can conclude our review by emphasizing that the Israel Hayom / BILD “investigation” is no investigation at all. It is a propaganda act which distorts the events on 7 October. Its purpose is to portray the Palestinians as religious fanatics which desire for nothing but killing and raping. Such an animalization shall justify Israel’s policy of oppression of the Palestinian people and, in particular, the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

 

It is such propaganda acts like the Israel Hayom / BILD article which shall aid pro-Zionist governments and media to criminalise supporters of the Palestinian liberation struggle as advocates of mass killing of civilians. For example, the author of these lines has been put on trial with such a charge (“support for terrorism”) and received a (suspended) sentenced of half a year in prison. [18]

 

The task of socialists remains to denounce the Zionist crimes and to stand with the Palestinian people and its resistance! [19]