Hamas Calls October 7 Attack “Outstanding Military Achievement” With God’s Help

As seen from the videos and descriptions, Hamas is effectively celebrating the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attack on the Nova music festival — the assault that triggered Israel’s sustained military campaign in Gaza, a war that has yet to end. To mark the occasion of an anniversary that led to the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians, the organization released footage of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, filmed shortly before his death in October 2024. The footage was released by the al-Qassam Brigades, the organization’s armed wing. Hamas described the attack as an “outstanding military achievement” and, in a statement bordering on the absurd, called on the West to support attacks on Israel launched from Yemen and Iraq. The footage was released unedited and uncensored. According to available information, the video is believed to have been recorded in the Tel al-Sultan area of Rafah — the location where Sinwar was sheltering in the period before his death.

Hamas: The video featuring the slain leader

The Hamas video serves as a prelude to the attack on Israel, featuring Tel al-Sultan Battalion commander Mahmoud Hamdan and company commander Anis al-Darbi — alongside whom Sinwar, who reportedly favored women’s headscarves as a disguise during public appearances, appears to be planning operations against Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.

Sinwar was killed in Rafah nearly a year later by the IDF. A video shared by an X platform user last May, showing him dead in a chair, was captioned: “This is the room where the devil met his end.”

This is the room where the devil met his end. Yahya Sinwar, the monster who planned October 7, cowered in the rubble like the rat he was. His final act wasn’t resistance. It was a coward’s whimper, pathetically throwing a stick at a drone. Then a young Israeli soldier, barely a few months in uniform, raised his rifle and put a bullet through his head. The same man whose brain tumor Israel removed years ago, literally saving his life, repaid us by masterminding the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. The very hole we drilled in his skull to heal him became the fatal hole that ended him. Poetic justice. A cub took down the hyena. Sinwar died in the dust, surrounded by the soldiers of the people he tried to exterminate. No glory. No martyrdom. Just a dead butcher who finally got what he deserved. Justice served. – @MorEdge_Insight

— Imtiaz Mahmood (@ImtiazMadmood) May 28, 2026

The provocation

Hamas provoked widespread condemnation with its statement on October 7, 2023 — a declaration that leaves no room for diplomatic concession. The spokesman for the organization’s military wing, Abu Obeida, described the attack as an “outstanding military achievement,” attributing it to “God’s help.” He claimed that “enemies and friends alike recognized the scale of the planning, execution, and deception” that preceded the assault.

Abu Obeida further stated that three years have passed since, in his words, “the fighters’ weapons shattered the occupation’s security doctrine,” adding that “there is no longer any deterrence.” He also declared that “Palestine will not forget those who stood by its side, especially those who shed their blood for it.”

“Attack Israel”

In the same statement, the al-Qassam Brigades spokesman effectively called for help from the West. He referenced attacks launched against Israel from Yemen and Iraq, and extended an open invitation to believers — even those beyond the Middle East. “Everyone saw how the drones that came from various fronts — from Yemen and Iraq — kept the enemy awake at night. What would happen if a front were also opened against them from the West?”

The devastating toll of October 7

With the involvement of Palestinian militant groups, Hamas fighters launched simultaneous attacks on communities in southern Israel, military bases, and the Nova music festival. In addition to an estimated 1,200 people killed — the majority of them civilians — 251 others were abducted and taken into the Gaza Strip. The attack was accompanied by acts of extreme violence and allegations of sexual assault. What followed in Gaza was catastrophic. The territory’s Health Ministry reports that more than 74,200 people have been killed in the enclave — a figure that does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The ministry is controlled by Hamas.

Israeli military officials have estimated that the overall death toll reported by Gaza authorities is broadly close to reality, while calculating that for every militant killed, between two and three civilians have also lost their lives.