Blame Palestinians During Attacks In Gaza Killing 1,100 People, Israeli Politician: We Have Warned

Israeli military illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/IDF Spokesperson's Unit photographer)

JAKARTA - Hasash Party politician and Israeli Parliament (Knesset) Ofer Cassif blamed Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's administration for the Palestinian Hamas militant attack on the Gaza region.

The left-wing coalition member said he had warned the situation would erupt if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Administration did not change its policy towards Palestine.

"We condemn and oppose all attacks on innocent civilians. But in contrast to the Israeli government, this means we are also against attacks on Palestinian civilians. We must analyze these horrific incidents in the right context, and it is an ongoing occupation," Cassif said., as reported by Al Jazeera October 9.

"We have warned many times, everything will happen and everyone will suffer the consequences, especially innocent civilians on both sides. And unfortunately, that's what happened."

"The Israeli government, which is a fascist government, supports, encourages, and leads the pogrom against Palestinians. There is ethnic cleansing that is happening. Obviously, the writing is on the wall, written in the blood of the Palestinians, and unfortunately it is now also an Israeli," Cassif added.

Furthermore, he also criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for leading the far-right coalition government, assessing that he was only concerned with personal interests.

"The only thing Netanyahu pays attention to is the welfare of Israelis, especially Palestinians in occupied territories," Cassif said.

"He's interested in survival. He just wants to get out of prison. That's the only motivation and incentive that encourages (his)," he explained, referring to a number of legal issues that threatened him after the attorney general filed several charges such as fraud and corruption, which Netanyahu denied.

As previously reported, Hamas fighters in Israeli cities on Saturday have been the deadliest attacks on the country since the Egyptian and Syrian attacks in the Yom Kippur War that broke out about 50 years ago.

Hamas said the attack was driven by what he called an increase in Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem, as well as against Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh highlighted the threat to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, the continuation of Israel's blockade of Gaza and the normalization of Israel with countries in the region.

At least 700 people on the Israeli side and 400 people on the Palestinian side have been declared dead as a result of attacking each other on Saturday.

Citing CNN, Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk told al-Ghad TV the exact number of Israeli prisoners would be recalculated, but more than a hundred people said there were top Israeli military officials among the prisoners. Meanwhile, Islamic Jihad claimed to have captivated 30 Israelis.

Long before last weekend's attack, a number of former top Israeli military and intelligence officials criticized Israel's occupation of the West Bank for its apartheid practice, regretting the violence that claimed lives, to the ratification of the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank with the latest issued early last month.

Last August, the former head of the northern front of the Israeli army who is also deputy head of the Mossad intelligence agency condemned the absolute apartheid in Israel's occupied West Bank, blaming far-right politicians allied with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for continuing human rights abuses in the region.

"I don't care about Palestinians, I forgive us. We kill ourselves from within. Aunt (Netanyahu) fails here. She puts criminals and conscriptors in military service in important positions that, in civilized countries, should be behind bars," Major General Amiram Levin said the army was just standing. the settlers were rampant and involved in war crimes, as quoted by The National News.

Separately, former head of Mossad Tamir Pardo said last month that Israel implemented apartheid in the occupied western Bank.

"There is an apartheid country here. In an area where two people are tried based on two legal systems, it is an apartheid country," said Tamir Pardo in an interview with the Associated Press.

Pardo, who served as head of the intelligence agency from 2011 to 2016, said his views on the West Bank were not extreme, but facts.

The second statement follows the growing number of political statements made by former senior members of the Israeli military and intelligence agencies, addressed to PM Netanyahu's government, although most of them focused on controversial judicial reshuffle plans from the prime minister.

The protests have rocked Israel for eight months over PM Netanyahu's plans, which critics have called a coup attempt.

Israel's actions in the West Bank so far this year, made 2023 the bloodiest year since 2005, breaking last year's record.

The settlers' violence, including the tantrums in the nearby city of Huwara Nablus in February, left at least 200 Palestinians injured and six people killed this year. In some cases, security forces were accused of involvement, for example, shooting dead a Palestinian man in an attack on Turmus Ayya.