On Saturday morning of October 7 (which was also a holiday in Israel), the Hamas terrorist organization declared war on the sovereign state of Israel. More than 2,000 Palestinian terrorists swarmed from the Gaza Strip in a killing spree throughout the Israeli towns, villages and kibbutzim along the border.
While some squads started massacring hundreds of peaceful young people at a music festival, dozens of gangs went on their murderous rampage from house to house; slaughtering, torturing, raping, burning down and looting, kidnapping civilians, sowing devastation and grief in a whole region in a matter of a few hours.
These dreadful events are clearly war crimes and crimes against humanity. They evoke for many the tragic images of the Islamic State’s eradication of the Yazidis in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq in 2014. It is no coincidence that the Hamas terrorists who carried out the horrific massacre carried on them, in addition to unimaginable amounts of weapons and ammunition, an ISIS flag.
ISIS and Hamas indeed share the same radical Islamist ideology, the same contempt for human life and the same extremely violent and barbarous means to achieve their goals. Most of the terrorists invaded Israel on a suicidal mission, and most of them are indeed dead by now. They perpetuated their crimes knowingly, assuming that they would not come back alive, but convinced that the brutal murder of Jews would open the gates to paradise before them.
The horrors include scenes so gruesome they defy human comprehension: decapitated corpses, burnt children, babies shot in their cribs and even a fetus that was removed from its (slain) mother's womb and stabbed.
Entire families, mercilessly executed one after another or trapped to endanger rescuers, evoke horrors that remind us of other dark times. As Israel's ambassador to Germany, this comparison is inevitable. That is why it is our moral duty to remind the world that "never again" is not merely a slogan. It is a commitment to future generations.
The terrorists who attacked Israelis over the weekend constitute only a small fraction of the active members of Hamas (and Palestinian Islamic Jihad), who built up a full-fledged army of terrorists, largely recruited from the Gaza population, which has mostly demonstrated support for Hamas leadership. Where did these bestial killers originate from? Who are the mothers and fathers who raised these monsters? What is the process enabling the Gaza Strip to produce so much hatred and violence?
Back in 2005, Israel fully withdrew from the Gaza Strip, handing over the keys to the Palestinian Authority. In the elections held in the Palestinian territories in 2006, Gaza citizens voted overwhelmingly for Hamas, thus enabling its violent full takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007.
Over the past 18 years, the residents of Gaza have nurtured and sustained the Hamas monster, which has, in turn, redirected all resources toward a military effort with the objective of obliterating Israel, neglecting the development and welfare of the Strip. The proponents of Hamas in the Gaza Strip do not advocate for democracy or civil liberties. Their credo is not grounded in dialogue and compromise but enforces their obscurantist approach through violence and terror. Even now, while the IDF advises Gaza residents to leave their homes to avoid harm, Hamas cynically uses them as human shields, instructing them to remain in place.
The majority of the terrorists who took part in the atrocities on Saturday were in their early twenties, having been raised over the past 18 years under Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip. Their upbringing in the environment of schools, mosques and social institutions overseen by Hamas exposed them consistently to persistent incitement to murder Jews and Israelis. This included the promotion of terrorism, glorification of terrorists and the financial incentivization of assailants and their families.
Images from Gaza frequently depict citizens vocally expressing their jubilation and handing out sweets following attacks against Israelis. Even in recent days, numerous Gazans visibly celebrated barbaric crimes and participated in the public humiliation of captive Jews in the streets of Gaza. Infuriatingly, we also witnessed similar scenes in Berlin and other European cities - demonstrations by Palestinians celebrating the massacre of Jews.
Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, with the support of Iran's Ayatollah regime, instigated this war and forced it upon Israel. Israel possesses full legitimacy in responding in self-defense and protecting its citizens in the face of the barbaric aggression of enemies who openly seek to annihilate us. We have no other choice but to triumph in this war, fighting the monster and dealing with it in the same uncompromising manner in which the Free World fought and vanquished the Islamic State.
Today, it is Israeli victims, entire families and communities, who must rebuild from the ashes. However, as we have seen, radical Islamist terrorism does not recognize geographic boundaries. Today it's Israel. And tomorrow?
Written by Ron Prosor, Israel's ambassador to Germany. You can read the article here.