Hamas official hints at regret over Oct 7 massacre & its results in Gaza; IDF attacks after attempted rocket launch from Gaza falls short

In an unusual statement, Musa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas leader based in Qatar, told the New York Times that he wouldn’t have supported the decision to start the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion into Israel if he had known about its consequences for the Gaza Strip.

In an interview conducted on Friday and published on Monday, Abu Marzouk said, “If it was expected that what happened would happen, there wouldn’t have been Oct. 7.”

In contrast with Abu Marzouk's ostensibly conciliatory tones, Hamas terrorists in Gaza attempted to launch a rocket at Israel on Monday.

The projectile fell short and exploded in the area of Rafah, and the IDF, in response, said it struck the launch site and an additional launch site in the area.

The events of the day highlighted the occasional disconnect between Hamas's foreign and Gaza-based branches.

According to Abu Marzouk, he and the other senior leaders of Hamas’ foreign branch knew about the military plans to attack Israel but weren’t informed about the details of the plans of Gaza leaders Yahya Sinwar and his military leader, Mohammed Deif.

Since the invasion and massacre – carried out by several Gaza-based terror groups and thousands of civilians under Hamas’ leadership – its leaders have consistently claimed victory over Israel.

However, Abu Marzouk already raised eyebrows about one year ago, when he said that “nobody” had expected Israel’s response to the massacre “to be so barbaric,” and that the Western nations, led by the U.S., would “gather their armies” in support of Israel.

Senior Hamas official: Nobody could have predicted that our invasion, massacre, rape, and taking children and grandparents as hostages would have sparked such a strong response from Israel. pic.twitter.com/mKB5LAp9gz

— Daniel Rubenstein (@paulrubens) February 25, 2024

In the aftermath of Oct. 7, reports indicated that Sinwar and Hamas’ Gaza-based leadership decided to launch the mass invasion in southern Israel without notifying its foreign branches, or its allies in Lebanon and Iran – a move that ultimately spared Israel from a catastrophic, second invasion by Hezbollah on that day.

In Israeli media, many commented on the similarity of Abu Marzouk’s comments to those made by former Hezbollah Sec.-Gen. Hassan Nasrallah, who was buried on Sunday.

In remarks Nasrallah made after the Second Lebanon War in 2006, he acknowledged that he would not have decided to go to war if he had known about the scope of Israel’s response beforehand.

While Abu Marzouk said that Hamas’ bare survival was itself a “kind of victory,” he also added, “We’re talking about a party that lost control of itself and took revenge against everything,” referring to Israel.

“That is not a victory under any circumstances.”

The apparent semantic games could have significant effects on the ongoing negotiations over the continuation of the ceasefire.

Other Hamas leaders have previously rejected making concessions to Israel, arguing that the terror group had emerged victorious and therefore had no obligation to comply with Israeli demands to disarm or relinquish control over the Gaza Strip.

When asked about the issue of disarmament, Abu Marzouk claimed that Hamas is “ready to speak about every issue. Any issue that is put on the table, we need to speak about it.”