The civilian catastrophe in Gaza is routinely described as something that simply happened, a tragedy without an author. But the public record tells a different story. In their own words — in interviews, speeches, and leaked private messages — Hamas’s leaders have spent years explaining that Palestinian suffering is not an accident of war. It is their strategy.

They chose this war knowing the cost.

Eleven days after October 7, Khaled Mashal went on Al Arabiya and acknowledged he understood exactly what the attack would bring down on Gaza. His answer: “No nation is liberated without sacrifices.” He cited the millions dead in Russia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Algeria — and then absolved himself: Hamas was “not responsible” for the civilian victims. He knew. He did it anyway. And then he disowned the consequences.

They welcomed the body count.

Yahya Sinwar, directing the war from Gaza’s tunnels, called thousands of dead Palestinian civilians “necessary sacrifices” in private messages reported by the Wall Street Journal. He wrote to Ismail Haniyeh that such deaths would “infuse life into the veins of this nation.” Most damning of all: he calculated that higher Palestinian casualties worked to Hamas’s advantage, tightening international pressure on Israel. Every dead civilian was, in his math, leverage. Hamas didn’t fail to protect Gazans. It profited from not protecting them.

They said it proudly, on camera.

Ghazi Hamad, October 2023: Hamas would repeat October 7 “a second, a third, and a fourth time.” “We are called ‘the people of Martyrs’ and we are proud to sacrifice Martyrs.” Note the grammar. Not “we mourn our martyrs.” We are proud to sacrifice them. The sacrifice of Palestinian lives is not a burden Hamas bears — it is a boast.

They needed the blood.

Ismail Haniyeh, in late October 2023: “The blood of the women, children and elderly… we are the ones who need this blood, so it awakens within us the revolutionary spirit.” Read that again. The blood of women, children, and the elderly is something Hamas needs. The suffering of Gaza’s most vulnerable is described as fuel for the cause.

This is not new. It is doctrine.

In 2008, Hamas official Fathi Hammad called death “an industry” at which Palestinians excel — women, children, and the elderly included. “We desire death as you desire life.” For nearly two decades, Hamas has built a culture in which civilian death is not a failure to be prevented but an asset to be harvested: human shields as strategy, martyrdom as propaganda, grief as diplomatic currency.

So let’s be precise about blame.

Hamas started a war it knew would devastate Gaza. Its leaders hid in tunnels and abroad while describing the resulting deaths as useful. They rejected ceasefires that could have stopped the dying. They embedded their war machine in homes, hospitals, and schools, guaranteeing that any Israeli response would kill civilians — and then pointed cameras at the bodies.

Israel’s bombs caused the physical destruction. But the decision that made that destruction inevitable — the decision to massacre 1,200 Israelis on October 7 knowing exactly what would follow, the decision to fight from inside civilian neighborhoods, the decision to treat every dead Palestinian child as a strategic win — that decision was made by Hamas.

When a leader calls your children’s deaths “necessary sacrifices” while he shelters underground, he is not your protector. He is the reason you needed protection. The suffering of Gaza’s people has an author. His name is Hamas.

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Sources: Wall Street Journal (June 2024, Sinwar correspondence); LBC TV (Oct. 24, 2023, Hamad interview); Al Arabiya (Oct. 19, 2023, Mashal interview); statements attributed to Haniyeh (Oct. 2023) and Fathi Hammad (2008), via Times of Israel, Palestinian Media Watch, and ADL reporting.