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Hamas has consistently denied allegations that its fighters intentionally killed civilians on October 7. In a manifesto published on January 21, titled “Our Narrative,” Hamas sought to explain Operation Al Aqsa Flood, though the document consisted mostly of general grievances. Among the tangible aims of the attacks in Israel, Hamas said, its fighters had “targeted the Israeli military sites, and sought to arrest the enemy’s soldiers to [put] pressure on the Israeli authorities to release the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails through a prisoners exchange deal.” “Maybe some faults happened during Operation Al Aqsa Flood’s implementation due to the rapid collapse of the Israeli security and military system, and the chaos caused along the border areas with Gaza,” it continued. Sinwar reportedly acknowledged to his comrades after October 7 that “things went out of control” and “People got caught up in this, and that should not have happened.” Rabbani said that it is undeniable that Hamas killed civilians during the October 7 attacks and expressed serious doubts about the group’s official position that Al Aqsa Flood was focused solely on targeting the Israeli military. “Hamas has a history of this—its suicide bombings against civilian buses and restaurants and so on during the Second Intifada,” he said. Rabbani recalls reading accounts of the October 7 attacks and watching videos from that day of Israeli civilians being killed or captured. “My initial view was that these were probably people who had been suffering in Gaza their whole lives, didn't expect to go back alive, and wanted to go out with a bang. I'm sure that's the explanation for some of these cases,” he said. “But I also wonder to what extent it was premeditated. I'd be very interested to learn to what extent Hamas intended to inflict a terribly traumatic blow on Israeli society, and not only the Israeli military,” he added. “There is evidence to support it. There is also evidence to contradict it. But I think it's a question worth examining in more detail.” The discourse surrounding the killing of Israeli civilians on October 7 has been a central element in shaping public opinion on the war. “So much of the rage in Israel is a function of this very high toll of civilian death,” said Khalidi. “War leads to civilian deaths, but this was far beyond what could or should have been acceptable under any circumstances, and that is also on the planners of this operation. I think that's a hard thing to say, but I think it's something that should be said.” “My initial view was that these were probably people who had been suffering in Gaza their whole lives, didn't expect to go back alive, and wanted to go out with a bang,” said Rabbani. “But I also wonder to what extent it was premeditated.” Israel’s social security agency has determined the official death toll from October 7 to be 1,139 people. Among those killed, 695 were categorized as Israeli civilians, along with 71 foreign civilians and 373 members of Israeli security forces. As horrifying as the civilian death toll was on October 7, the message was and remains firm from U.S. and Israeli officials: Israeli lives are worth exponentially more than those of Palestinians. Hamas has said that its forces targeted military bases and illegal settlements, characterizing the killing of civilians in the kibbutzim as collateral damage in battles against armed settlers “registered as civilians while the fact is they were armed men fighting alongside the Israeli army.” Hamas officials suggested that many of the confirmed dead Israeli civilians were killed in crossfire, “friendly fire” incidents, or intentionally killed by the Israeli Army to prevent them from being taken alive back to Gaza. “If there was any case of targeting civilians," Hamas alleged in its manifesto, "it happened accidentally and in the course of the confrontation with the occupation forces.” Abulhawa charged that the Israeli and U.S. governments launched a coordinated propaganda campaign in the immediate aftermath of October 7 aimed at dehumanizing Palestinians and successfully crafted a false narrative of Hamas fighters as bestial monsters who killed for the sake of killing. She cited the volume of horror stories of sadistic crimes allegedly committed by Hamas fighters, including the beheading of babies, that have been promoted by Israeli and US officials, including Biden, only to later be disproven under scrutiny from journalists and independent researchers. “They said that they beheaded babies, that they eviscerated a pregnant woman, that they burned a baby in an oven, like really horrific violence that seemed just evil and gratuitous to kill Jews. That was the narrative,” she said. “It had not even a seed of truth.” Hamas’s Naim credited the October 7 attacks and the nine months of armed insurgency against the invading Israeli forces for elevating the plight of Palestinian liberation to the center of global attention. “This popular support everywhere, especially in America and Europe, do you believe this would happen by a workshop in Washington, D.C., discussing between Palestinians and Americans how to run Rafah crossings?” he asked. “Unfortunately, this is the way. There is no other way.” Hamad told me that no one involved with the planning of the October 7 attacks that he spoke with predicted the full scope of Israel’s response and that many Hamas leaders expected a more intense and prolonged version of previous Israeli attacks on Gaza. “This is a point that is very sensitive,” he said. “No one expected this reaction from the Israel side, because what happened now in Gaza, it is a full destruction of Gaza, killing about 40,000 people, destroying all the institutions, hospitals and everything. I know the situation is horrible in Gaza. It's very, very hard. And we need at least ten years to reconstruct Gaza.” “This war is totally different,” Hamad said. “Totally different.” Prisoner Dilemma International mediators have restarted negotiations between Hamas and Israel and there are indications that some type of incremental agreement may be on the horizon, though the permanent ceasefire that Hamas has demanded seems unlikely. “The main issue is Hamas won't do a deal without the end of the war and Israel won't do a deal that ends the war,” Baskin told me. Israel has insisted that Hamas disarm and that the group be barred from participating in the post-war governance of Gaza. Hamas has maintained it will remain a political force with the right to armed defense against Israeli occupation. “America should understand, and this is very important, Hamas will be part of the Palestinian scene,” said Hamad. “Hamas will not be expelled. Hamas created October 7 and created this history.” According to a member of Hamas’s negotiating team, the Palestinian representatives have observed U.S. mediators growing increasingly frustrated with the Israeli side. “Everything that [Israel] needs, they call the babysitter. The United States is fed up now from the Israeli behavior,” said the Hamas official, who asked to remain anonymous. “They are scared that this war will be wider in different regions, so they want to control Netanyahu and his madness. They are trying to [put] more pressure on Israel to accept this ceasefire. They are trying, but I think until now they did not use all the cards in order to push Israel. I think it's like their spoiled boy.” The Hamas negotiator told me he has the impression that “the United States is trying to deal gently and softly with Israel, trying to apply pressure, but not squeeze them in the corner. Because of this, now there is a big conflict and dispute between Israel and the United States.” Of all the objectives of the October 7 attacks, the one that Hamas was most confident would yield concrete results was freeing Palestinians from Israeli jails. According to Israeli figures, more than 240 people, including Israeli soldiers and civilians as well as foreigners, were taken back to Gaza during the Hamas-led attacks. “[Hamas] made a quick deal with the Israelis,” said Baskin. “It was three prisoners for every hostage. I think that was an amazingly low price.” Sinwar has consistently prioritized the liberation of Palestinian prisoners. It was how he gained his own freedom in 2011, in an exchange that saw Sinwar and more than 1,000 other Palestinians freed from Israeli jails in return for a single Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. “It isn't a political issue, for me it is a moral issue,” he said in 2018. “I will try more than my best to free those who are still inside.” Naim said Israel has historically shown a willingness to pay a high price for the return of its soldiers, including freeing Palestinians it characterizes as terrorists. “Some of them are now [in prison] for more than 45, 44 years,” he said. “They have also exercised a lot of pressure on the leadership to do something.” But, three weeks into the war, when Sinwar officially proposed a sweeping deal to release “all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for all prisoners held by the Palestinian resistance,” Israel rejected it.