Former PA PM defends Oct. 7 massacre: “The Palestinian people has the right to defend itself”
Former PA Prime Minister and Fatah Central Committee member Muhammad Shtayyeh: “I woke up [on Oct. 7, 2023], turned on the news and opened up the phone, and suddenly [saw] indescribable scenes: paragliders, border breaches, motorcycles in action, bodies lying around, fires here and there, people returning from the 1948 borders (i.e., Israel) [to the Gaza Strip], people loading things, and the like. [It was] an indescribably strange situation. The news initially spoke of the killing of 1,400 Israelis within 24 hours. The battle continues, airstrikes, enormous confusion, surprise in Israel, surprise in the world, and surprise also among us. In other words, we were surprised by this scene…
In a meeting held on Oct. 7, we [the PA] issued a statement, and one sentence was added to the statement: ‘The Palestinian people has the right to defend itself.’ All the official Palestinian entities, our ambassadors, our ministers, the [PA] presidential office spokesperson, and [I] the prime minister, everyone, all of us were asked one question. The first question that every journalist and every official element opened with was: “Do you condemn Oct. 7?” And we used to answer in the same way: That the Palestinian people’s tragedy did not start on Oct. 7, that the Palestinian issue is 76 years old, since 1948, and therefore these are cumulative events, and in any case we believed that the matter [Oct.7] is one of the chapters of the struggle, and one of the chapters of the conflict.” …
Al-Arabiya TV host: “How would you define the Oct. 7 operation now?”
Muhammad Shtayyeh: “Look, the Oct. 7 operation is a daring operation, unprecedented in history, honestly, and it is an important chapter in the history of the Palestinian struggle.”
Muhammad Shtayyeh was PA Prime Minister when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Hamas' Oct. 7 war on Israel - Over 1,100 Israelis, including over 800 civilians, were murdered and over 5,000 wounded, in addition to approximately 251 who were abducted into the Gaza Strip (including 154 later released or liberated - among them 37 whose bodies were retrieved - and at least 41 who were killed on Oct. 7 whose bodies were abducted to Gaza), in a Hamas terror war that began when approximately 3,000 Hamas terrorists and thousands of Gazan civilians broke through Israel's security fence at the Gaza Strip border and launched a surprise attack, taking control of several Israeli towns and attacking a music festival on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, which fell on the Sabbath, Oct. 7, 2023. During the massacre the terrorists tortured, raped, shot, beheaded, and burned their victims alive, murdering entire families and leaving at least 21 children without parents. Hamas terrorists also fired at least 5,000 rockets at Israeli population centers.
