Hamas blames ‘missiles from a Zionist plane’ for Oct. 7 music festival massacre

Beirut, Nov 19 (EFE).- The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas denounced Sunday that it was Israel’s “military, security and intelligence failures” that caused the massacre at the Nova electronic music festival on Oct. 7, saying Israeli helicopters bombed the young people attending the event.

According to Israeli police, 364 people were killed at the music festival, up from an initial estimate of 260.Hamas officials said at a press conference in Beirut that an investigation published Sunday by the Israeli daily Haaretz was correct in blaming the Israel Defense Forces for the deaths, but the newspaper actually claimed only that “some festival participants” were ” apparently also hit ” by “an IDF combat helicopter that arrived at the scene and fired on terrorists.”

“Apache helicopters were the ones that bombed the concert attendees. The charred bodies were the result of missiles from a Zionist plane,” the Hamas spokesman said, adding that “this confirms beyond any doubt that the occupier (Israel), in the face of its security, intelligence and militia failure on October 7, committed a massacre against those who attended the event.”

This bombing, according to Hamas, was the result of the “confusion and state of chaos that prevails in the Israeli political leadership.”

In this regard, Hamas called for a meeting of the UN General Assembly and Security Council to “put an immediately stop” on the “aggression on Gaza”, while calling on the US and European countries that support Israel in its “right to defend itself” to abandon this support and “apologize”.

They also called on the Arab League and the Council of Islamic Cooperation to immediately open the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt and establish humanitarian corridors, as well as for the establishment of a special tribunal at the United Nations “to try the leaders of the occupation (Israel) and hold them accountable for the crimes they are committing against our people.”

Haaretz, a left-wing israeli newspaper, published an investigation Sunday saying that according to “police’s investigation of the incident” the Hamas attackers who stormed Israeli territory were unaware of the existence of the music festival in a desert area near Gaza and “decided to target the party spontaneously.”

The Nova festival was the largest massacre perpetrated by Hamas on Oct.7, when it razed a number of kibbutzim and small communities near the GazaStrip, killing more than 1,200 people and kidnapping some 240, according to the latest data from Israeli authorities.

“Senior security officials estimate that Hamas found out about the party through drones or parachutes, and directed the terrorists to the location using their comms system,” Haaretz reported.

According to police sources, the party was originally scheduled for Thursday and Friday, October 5 and 6, and only an extra day, Saturday, October 7, was added at the last minute at the request of the organizers in light of the large turnout of some 4,400 people.

“Police analysis shows that many of those attending the festival managed to flee because it was decided to stop the party half an hour before gunfire was first heard.,” the Haaretz article said.EFE

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