Hamas spokesperson says ’had no intention’ to kill Israelis during Oct 7 infiltration, cuts interview midway

Israel-Gaza war news:  Hamas spokesperson, Ghazi Hamad, who is also the deputy foreign minister, has told a BBC correspondent during an interview, that the fighter group had not been instructed to kill civilians during their 7 October land-air-water surprise attack on Israel.

The war between Israel and Hamas fighters from Gaza has entered its 21st day. Risks of regional spillover causing a full-fledged Middle east war haunts global power structure as blasts hit two Egyptian towns. Amid this, a Hamas spokesperson has said that there was no command to the militants to kill Israeli civilians.

The statement by the Hamas spokesperson contradicts the visuals and reports from the 7 October assault, which saw at least 1,400 Israeli and foreign nationals die. The Hamas assault also ransacked the Supernova Music Festival, killing 260 people. 

In the interview, Hamas spokesperson Hamad defended his statement, and said that “:because the area was very wide” there “were clashes and confrontation”.

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The statement seems to echo Benjamin Netanyahu who claimed that Palestinian civilians dying in Gaza Strip due to Israeli bombardment were collateral damage. 

During the interview, when the interviewer mentioned the Hamas fighters killed Israelis in their houses, while they were sleeping on the night of 7 October and asserted that "it was not a confrontation", the Hamas spokesperson replied, "I can tell you we didn't have any intention or decision to kill the civilians."

The BBC journalist further asked the Hamas official to justify the killings, to which Hamad fretted and took off the mic from his lapel and chucked it onto the floor while saying “I want to stop this interview”.

Meanwhile, the health ministry in Gaza on Friday informed that 7,326 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since the eruption of war with Israel on 7 October.

Further, the Israel Defense Forces have informed that the commander of Hamas' Western Khan Yunis Battalion, Madhath Mubshar, was killed in an aerial strike on Thursday night.

For the second consecutive night, Israeli troops carried out targeted strikes inside Gaza, as confirmed by the Israel Defense Forces, bracing them for their preparations for the next phase in the conflict against Hamas.

The IDF also informed that they hit over 250 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip in twenty four hours.