Israel planned attack on Gaza and used Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack to carry it out
Official PA TV host: "Reports have been published saying that the Israeli army has planned for years a very strong attack on the Gaza Strip specifically… and that the timing of Oct. 7, [2023] was coincidental (i.e., Hamas' massacre and launch of terror war on Israel). Why are we holding the Palestinian street and the Palestinian factions responsible for what happened, while in fact the Israeli entity planned what happened and had a plan to eliminate the largest possible number of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip?" …
Egyptian lecturer on international relations Dr. Hamed Fares: "Israel couldn't enter the Gaza Strip at all before the events of Oct. 7. Even if it [previously] wanted to eliminate the Palestinian cause and act intensively to bury the Palestinian resistance – it [could] not [do so] with this intensity… What happened on Oct. 7 was a great setback and a heavy burden on the Palestinian cause. Now the international community cannot restrain the Israeli occupation state... because Israel exploited the events of Oct. 7 to create a pretext to carry out its plans and speed up the realization of the dream of Greater Israel, whether by annexing the West Bank, or through a different direction within the Gaza Strip."
[Official PA TV, Capital of Capitals – Cairo, March 24, 2025]