What happened on October 7th?

The battle in which the Qassam Brigades eliminated 10 Israeli soldiers in Juhr al-Dik, east of the central region (social media sites)

I call for a careful reading of the background and repercussions of the earthquake that occurred in Gaza on the morning of October 7th. I begin with a personal observation, the summary of which is that the momentous event called me to write after a break of more than 7 years, after I suffered from a feeling of shame that accompanied me alongside my feelings of joy and optimism at times and sadness and shame at other times. The reason for my shame is that my seclusion automatically included me in the box of spectators and silent people, which is what I shied away from for sixty years. I did not find a solution to get out of that situation except by temporarily returning to writing, no matter how modest it was. I am convinced that speaking out in solidarity and support at this historical moment has become an obligation for everyone who is affiliated with the craft of writing, even if he was one day like that.

(1)

When I said that we were about to have an “earthquake” strike Gaza that day, I am using the same word that Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas’s political bureau, used when he issued a warning to the Israelis in a meeting with a mediator, which took place in mid-September, in the context of a discussion about some Pending problems related to the Israeli occupation authorities’ intransigence towards Palestinian workers. As the narrator, who attended the meeting, mentioned to me, at the conclusion of his speech, he informed the mediator that if these problems were not resolved within two weeks (that is, before October), the Israelis would face an “earthquake” that they could not tolerate.

This is the brief message that the mediator conveyed without any details, and the occupation authorities did not care about the threat, especially after the first of October came without anything happening in the Gaza Strip, which made them not take the words seriously and did not hesitate to relax after the new month began, until the incident occurred. The biggest shock was on October 7th.

When Sinwar issued his threat, he deliberately misled the Israelis and hypnotized them. This was not the only camouflage he practiced, because he sent several indirect messages that conveyed other false information to Israel that distracted its agencies from the truth of what Hamas perceived to be true. One of the most prominent of these positions is that when Israel launched a severe campaign of repression targeting some of the leaders of the Islamic Jihad movement a year and a half ago, the Hamas leadership remained silent and did not do anything. This was a message aimed at misleading the Israelis that the movement was busy or content with ruling the Gaza Strip and that it was concerned with solving the humanitarian and economic problems there.

In this regard, my attention was caught by what Professor Abdel Qader Yassin, the Palestinian activist and historian, said, that October 7 was not the first date for the Great Intifada, but rather it was the third date, because Hamas had set two previous dates, but it doubted the possibility of it being leaked through other resistance movements that I was informed of the news. In his opinion, the third time, some other friendly or allied resistance movements - the Islamic Jihad movement, for example - did not arrive until half an hour before the start of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation.

(2)

In order to put the scene in its correct context, we must not forget that the Gaza Strip has been under a tight siege for 18 years, which means that what is entered is monitored and subject to careful examination by the Israeli authorities, so that everything suspected of falling within the elements of strength and invincibility is prohibited and not allowed to enter. To the sector. Monitoring everything that enters is not enough, because drones monitor everything that moves. Therefore, every human activity is monitored, including the activities of resistance movements and the training that takes place in their spaces and camps. However, the resistance did not surrender to that harsh reality, and the tunnels were the most prominent solutions it resorted to, so it can be said; If the occupation forces controlled everything above ground, then the resistance established another world over which it had no control, underground.

The world of tunnels - whose length is estimated at up to 500 kilometers - was and still is the primary source of military power, which contains all its requirements from weapons manufacturing workshops of various types. To communication networks, guidance and control centers, and technical and precision experiment laboratories. It is no longer a secret that a great effort was made to smuggle weapons and their supplies from various surrounding countries. There is also a large group of experts in various specializations who gained their experience from studying and working in many countries of the developed and developing world, especially since the Palestinians realized that they stand completely alone in the face of the Zionist occupation. In addition to using the precise acquired experiences that enabled them to make the “marches,” they also used the “scrap” available to them in manufacturing the weapon, which several lathes refined and shaped to turn into effective parts in the manufacturing process.

Not much light was shed on the innovation of manufacturing weapons from scrap, and the genius of constructing a network of tunnels of various kinds was shrouded in secrecy, a veil that concealed the facts of the extraordinary intelligence effort that was made to monitor everything that was happening in the settlements surrounding Gaza, to the point that the Qassam leadership had Sufficient pictures of the buildings and content of the Israeli military force responsible for controlling the Gaza Strip. The efficiency of that effort was such that it enabled the resistance to cut off communication between the occupation leadership and the settlements spread around the Strip, and then penetrate them and facilitate control over them within limited hours on October 7th.

When the will was there and the high technical expertise combined, the Hamas movement succeeded in establishing seven battalions of fighters, estimated at about 35,000 people. What distinguished them most was not only their competence, fitness, and training, but they continued to compete for martyrdom in fighting the enemy. They were considered the elite of the movement, whose total membership was said to be approximately one hundred thousand people. They formed the striking force of the resistance, which included other groups for the rest of the national elements, led by the Islamic Jihad movement, the popular and democratic fronts, and the revolutionary wing of the Fatah movement. These people have become the pillars of the joint resistance room and the general national resistance.

(4)

There is something new in the ongoing conflict. For the first time, the fighting has entered its fourth month, going beyond the principle of blitzkrieg to which Israel has become accustomed. For the first time, resistance missiles reach deep into Israel, and residents of both Tel Aviv and major cities are asked to take shelter in bunkers. For the first time, Israel's prestige has fallen and the legend of its army and intelligence, which everyone believed were unbeatable, has fallen. For the first time, Western regimes - led by the United States - are lining up in clear and blatant hostility towards the Palestinians after they abandoned the role of “honorable mediators” that they promoted, which suggests that we are on the verge of a new crusade. For the first time, the ugliness of Israel's true face, which has been practiced since 1948 and has not stopped for a moment for 75 years, is revealed to the world. For the first time, demonstrations of new generations took place in the capitals of the Western world allied with Israel, denouncing the Israeli aggression. It was unfortunate that for the first time, the absence of the Arab world and the inability of its regimes to defend its “pivotal and central” cause were made public.

For the first time, Israel is being tried before the International Court of Justice, the main judicial arm of the United Nations called the “World Court.” Israel’s matter is exposed and its policy is exposed after the case brought by the state of South Africa, accusing it of the crime of all crimes, which is the extermination of the Palestinian people.

What is no less important than all of this is that for the first time the Arab world witnessed a real war and resistance by the Palestinians against the Israeli occupation within its borders since the Nakba of 1948, and this is considered a historical transformation that challenged the fait accompli that it imposed for 75 years, the result of which was the earthquake. The Palestine file has been forcefully restored from the corners of oblivion after it had been ignored for a long time, especially in the last ten years. This was what prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delete all of Palestine from the map of the region in his speech before the United Nations General Assembly last September, that is, just two weeks before the “Al-Aqsa Flood.”

This important shift in the Palestinian file revived the dream of liberation and regaining the land after the glow of this dream faded to the point where only the name of the Liberation Organization remained. I am talking here about recalling the dream after resolve weakened and it became common among everyone that Israel is an enemy that is impossible to defeat, forgetting that the Crusaders remained in our country for about two hundred years before they were forced to leave for their country.

In terms of reviving dreams and awakening them from the womb of the unseen, I see indications of an important movement of stagnant water in our surroundings. By that I mean the negative position of most Western regimes towards the issue of Palestine, and towards the solidarity of some African countries and their counterparts in Latin America, an atmosphere that revived the idea of ​​reviving the role of the countries of the South. He was the one who suffered a lot from the provocation and arrogance of the arrogant people in the northern countries. The one that has been sucking the blood of the South and humiliating it with its power for some time and with the model of Western liberalism for all time. He is the one who became shamed after he failed miserably in the moral test by refusing to condemn the Israeli war of annihilation in Gaza.

(5)

I know there is a difference between winning a battle and winning a war. The first is an achievement that takes place during rounds of combat, while victory is not announced until after a ceasefire and the fighting stops.

It is not far from mind the achievement of the Egyptian Armed Forces, which was achieved on October 6, 1973, and culminated in crossing the Bar Lev Line, which dealt a painful blow to Israel. But the developments that occurred after that, with President Anwar Sadat’s visit to Israel and his reconciliation with it, which led to the Arab boycott of Cairo and the disintegration of the Arab contract while weakening the Palestinian cause, all of that took away much of the Egyptian army’s achievement, when it became clear that Egypt had won the battle of crossing but had lost the war against Israel. . Therefore, our appreciation for what the resistance has achieved in Gaza should not distract us from the necessity of rallying to win the war against Israel one day, even if it is distant. This is not the responsibility of the Palestinians alone, but it is the responsibility of all of us, not out of sacrifice and pride, but in defense of our national security and the national interest of every Arab country.

It is unfortunate that I can hardly find anyone concerned with this issue at the present time, and I bear witness that the Palestinians preceded us by offering their share in it, and wrote their page with the valor of their men and the blood of their people.