Israel National News reports: “In an interview aired Sunday by Al Jazeera, Dr. Khalil al-Hayya, chief negotiator for the Hamas terrorist organization, described the October 7, 2023, massacre as the ‘inevitable outcome’ of decades of what he called occupation and injustice, while defending the group’s actions and calling for international prosecution of Israeli leaders.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, al-Hayya said the attack, which he referred to as the ‘Al-Aqsa Flood,’ was a direct consequence of what he described as 77 years of Israeli ‘occupation,’ including the denial of Palestinian rights, the siege of Gaza, and actions at the Temple Mount. ‘It was the inevitable outcome of seventy-seven years of occupation, of an occupier that refuses to grant even our most basic rights,’ he stated.

He accused Israel of seeking to ‘Judaize Jerusalem,’ of introducing laws to ‘divide Al-Aqsa Mosque and build the so-called Temple,’ and of imposing a blockade on Gaza for nearly two decades. ‘This is an occupier that denies the existence of a Palestinian people,’ al-Hayya claimed…”