As the clock struck midnight and the date changed to October 7th, a Hamas delegation consisting of Khalil Al-Hayya and Zaher Jabareen concluded a meeting with mediators on US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh. The Hamas leaders were discussing peace on the second anniversary of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
They indicated the meeting was fruitful and helped establish a roadmap for the current negotiation round. Two years since the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was launched to hit the Israelis and drag them into a protracted conflict, involving land aggression in Gaza, the Islamic resistance Hamas has highlighted two distinct facts—it was wrong in estimating Israel’s response and Tel Aviv can’t obliterate the Palestinian resistance.
While the world observed the second anniversary of the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Hamas, through its overwhelming presence, slammed Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim of obliterating the Islamic resistance organisation.
Hamas defends Operation Al-Aqsa Flood
Discussing the issue on the second anniversary of the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Hamas has defended its 2023 actions and blamed Israel for the mayhem that followed its attacks.
“October 7th, the day of the glorious crossing, the day when the sons of Palestine, the sons of our valiant resistance, drew the first line on the path to the freedom of Palestine,” Hamas said in a statement issued on Tuesday, October 7th.
“The second anniversary of the glorious crossing passes, and the battle is still ongoing, with its continuous repercussions casting political and military shadows over the region and the area, having constituted a major turning point in the political and military landscape of the region,” the Islamic resistance claimed.
Speaking on why Hamas believes that the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was justified, one of its leaders, Mahmoud Mardawi, said, “Our people have exercised their natural right—after decades of massacres, persecution, and pursuit—to resist the occupation imposed upon them generation after generation.”
“We did not go to South America or North America, nor to Africa, to fight the zionists; rather, they are the ones who occupied our land, killed our children and women, and destroyed the foundations of our homeland,” he claimed.
Hamas blames Israel for Gaza’s sufferings
According to Hamas, it’s the Israeli occupation that has launched a brutal war against the Palestinian people and has been killing civilians, instead of facing the armed resistance.
“The political and humanitarian disasters caused by the occupation are too deep and vast to be measured,” Mr Mardawi said.
He claimed that it’s for the sake of the suffering Palestinian people that Hamas, which thought Operation Al-Aqsa Flood would provide it with a strategic impetus, has agreed to engage in the peace talks.
“We proceed from a sense of responsibility that places the interest of the Palestinian people above all else, without retreating from our national constants or our legitimate right to self-defence,” he claimed.
In a video press release, Hamas leader Fawzi Barhoum also pins the blame for the destruction across Gaza on the Israelis and the US.
Hamas claims it continues to fight
Despite Israel’s genocidal attacks on the civilians in Gaza, records show Hamas has not just survived, but thrived.
Gaza had over 25,000 to 30,000 armed Hamas members. Though Israel has killed more than double that number in the enclave since October 2023, questions have arisen over Mr Netanyahu’s real target.
On the first anniversary of the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) showed that the Israelis had killed nearly 8,500 fighters.
After six months of the ACLED’s data, further investigations in May 2025 revealed that 8,900 named armed members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and others were killed by Israel since October 2023. It highlights that the majority of the people Israel has killed are civilians.
There are also no signs that Hamas’s recruitments have fallen. Rather, the ongoing genocide has helped its military wing, Al Qassam Brigades.
Hailing the resilience of its ranks and files, Hamas said, “Two years of popular steadfastness, rallying around the resistance, and the heroism of the sons and owners of the land, in the face of the land’s occupying strangers, the riff-raff.”
On Monday, October 6th, Al-Qassam fighters managed to shell a gathering of Israeli forces and vehicles northwest of the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood, east of Gaza City. They charged the Israelis with several mortar shells. Israel has, so far, not confirmed any damages.
Other resistance organisations are also carrying out their regular attacks using explosives and shells targeting Israeli troops inside Gaza, although the number of crude rockets fired into the occupied territories has fallen.
Hamas also praised the Palestinian people for not surrendering to the occupation, despite suffering the ordeal.
“Two years, and our people remain rooted in their land, adhering to their legitimate rights, in the face of plans for liquidation and forced displacement,” the organisation claimed.
Abandoned Palestinians remain steadfast
On the second anniversary of the Operation Al Aqsa Flood, the Islamic resistance organisation alleged that the Palestinians have not only been abandoned by the so-called international community, but also by the Arabs.
“Two years, and the enemy continues its brutal war against our steadfast Palestinian people and its massacres against unarmed civilians, amid shameful international silence and complicity, and unprecedented Arab abandonment,” Hamas alleged.
“Two years of pain, injustice, oppression, great suffering, and immense sacrifices, while the resistance’s eye looks toward the freedom of Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa, and Palestine, all of Palestine,” it added.
While hailing the sacrifices made by the Palestinians for their homeland, the Islamic resistance also highlighted the sacrifices of its leaders.
“Two years, during which our people have offered a large constellation of their sons and leaders as martyrs on the path to freedom, led alongside the sons of our people by the leaders of the valiant resistance, foremost among them the martyred leaders: the great martyr Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the great Flood, the martyr Yahya Sinwar, Saleh Al-Arouri, Mohammed Deif, and other great martyrs on the path to freedom,” Hamas said.
“Two years of legendary resilience and steadfastness by the valiant Palestinian resistance, in the face of the most severe settler-colonial occupation known to humanity,” it added.
Hamas emphasises resilience on Al Aqsa Flood anniversary
Despite being involved in the peace talks, Hamas claimed it had not allowed the banner to fall.
“Two years, and the banner of our people has not fallen; two years, and the fortresses have not been breached, nor have our positions been seized from us,” the organisation said.
“Two years, and our people wield their legitimate weapon in defence of their constants and national rights, in the face of zionist oppression and arrogance,” it further said.
“Two years, and beyond, steadfastness upon steadfastness. Two years, and our people are rooted in their land, rallying around their resistance, adhering to their national constants, and their right to self-determination, far from illegitimate guardianship projects, with their eyes looking toward Al-Quds, Al-Aqsa, and Palestine, all of Palestine,” the statement read.
“Two years, and we carry Gaza, and Palestine, all of Palestine, with its great people, their pain, their oppression, their suffering, and their hopes, in our minds and hearts, and above our heads, moving forward with it toward the precincts of Noble Jerusalem and the Blessed Al-Aqsa,” the organisation added.
What does Hamas look up to?
Mr Barhoum outlined the resistance’s demands in the current negotiations.
He said Hamas seeks a permanent ceasefire, full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, unrestricted aid flow, and a prisoner exchange.
While highlighting Hamas’s demands, Mr Barhoum warned against Mr Netanyahu’s attempts to obstruct the talks. Earlier, Mr Netanyahu had bombed Qatar to stall the negotiations, and on March 18th, he had violated the January ceasefire agreement.
The conflict has now entered a very complex phase, where the resistance, in their desperate bid to end the bloodshed, agrees to a comprehensive ceasefire, but Israel wants to drag it on. At the end, as Mr Barhoum has warned, Israel gets all the scopes to stall the peace process and intensify its genocidal actions.
However, Israel’s failure to defeat or obliterate Hamas proves that its aggression and “precision strikes” were never meant for the Islamic resistance. They were meant for the civilians.
This way, Israel has proved it wants to terrorise the Palestinian people, so that for generations they remain subjugated. Yet, the resistance movements standing in solidarity with Gaza claim that the semi-starved Gazans still refuse to capitulate. This steadfastness, Hamas officials claim, help it thrive on the second anniversary of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
East Post is an independent geopolitical analysis portal covering South Asia and global power dynamics for international audiences. Views expressed are analytical and do not constitute endorsement of any state or non-state actor.
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