After nearly a month and a half since the heroic operation of “Al-Aqsa Flood,” carried out by the men of Islamic resistance against the Zionist entity, some still say that the resistance is the one that provoked the Zionist entity with this operation, causing the Palestinians bloodshed and displacement!

We do not need much effort to respond to these allegations raised by those who seek justifications for their negligence and abandonment of the Palestinian people.

Palestinian scholar Dr. Mohammed Al-Astal has addressed this allegation since the ninth day of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation under the title “Why did the Mujahideen choose to attack the enemy despite knowing its reaction?"

I am not one to bother responding to any confusion raised in any issue on social media, out of respect for scholarly standing and considering that time should not be wasted on matters of limited benefit.

In recent days, some of my Muslim brothers have asked me about those who say, There is no need to provoke the Zionist enemy into responding with such brutality.

Making an exception to what I usually adhere to, I quickly answer with what comes to mind in such difficult circumstances. So I say:

Here are only four reasons before you:

The first reason:

The enemy is rapidly and unprecedently desecrating and attempting to judaize Al-Aqsa Mosque by building the temple. What used to take two or three years for them to achieve is now accomplished in two or three weeks, let alone the humiliation, degradation, and oppression of the people of Jerusalem and the arrest of their dignitaries.

This is in addition to the blockade affecting many groups that can no longer reach Al-Aqsa Mosque to pray. Approximately 50 scholarly gatherings within the mosque have been prohibited for years.

In the days preceding the “Al-Aqsa Flood,” around five thousand settlers, if not more, desecrated Al-Aqsa Mosque. This is the highest number in a few days, which has not been seen in the past twenty years. This operation came as a response to this increasing desecration and judaization, evident in the name of the battle, “Al-Aqsa Flood.”

The second reason:

The enemy has been subjecting us to slow-death operations for the past fifteen years. We have a whole generation born into the crisis, and those in their twenties and thirties are mostly unemployed, facing challenges in various aspects of life. Many cannot afford education, marriage, building a home, or finding employment.

All of this has resulted in the inheritance of many social problems within the community. Unemployment and spinsterhood increase, and the list of economic and social crises continues to grow.

Recently, tens of thousands of people have migrated from the country to the West in search of a livelihood. Dozens or even hundreds have been swallowed by the sea while trying to escape from crisis to crisis.

The third reason:

The enemy tortures our captive leaders, and many of them face death repeatedly every day. Some have lived in spaces as small as one and a half meters for thirteen years. Some prisoners are placed in cells stained with poop, and they’re left there miserable and on the verge of a breakdown, to clean them for two or three days.

Additionally, they strip the prisoner of clothes and beat them. After the cleaning, they are transferred to another cell to repeat the same process many times.

The situation for the prisoners has reached an unbearable point recently. They started feeling abandoned by the Ummah, with no one understanding their feelings or knowing what is happening to them.

With the rise of religious extremism in the Zionist government led by Ben-Gvir and his likes, prisoners are now living in an agonizing hell. Voices in recent months have been calling for the liberation and rescue of these prisoners from these atrocities.

Add to that the humiliating actions that female prisoners endure, actions that violate religion, chastity, and modesty, which I prefer not to delve into here. This operation, “Al-Aqsa Flood,” came to put an end to these endless tragedies.

The fourth reason:

“This is the most dangerous reason”; the resistance declared that it had obtained secret information revealing the enemy's preparation for a fierce attack against the Gaza Strip, intending it to be devastating. The resistance wanted to deny them the opportunity and deprive them of the element of surprise. Moreover, it wanted the element of surprise to be in its hands rather than the enemy's.

Therefore, this tremendous attack came to achieve several collective purposes.

We went through a similar experience in the 2014 war when the resistance came to know that the enemy intended to launch a massive war on Gaza. Subsequently, it started provoking the enemy with dozens of missiles within two days without an official announcement, luring it to an unexpected attack without achieving the gains it could have through surprise attacks, such as killing a significant number of leaders or hundreds of soldiers during training sessions, and so on.

These are four reasons hastily written under the sounds of planes and bombings, to say afterward:

The people on the frontlines are the ones who know their situation best, and the right of one who doesn't know is to inquire before forming an opinion; this is wisdom. It is not prohibited for someone outside the country to give opinions on its affairs, but only after they have complete knowledge of the situation along with the reality, as is known from the conditions of issuing (Fatwa) religious rulings.

I write this with a heavy heart. Crisis times are times for support, not for criticism and evaluation. Those saturated with the narrative of oppressive regimes, which adopt the same Zionist narrative, will not be convinced. Instead, they will be motivated to refute anyone who addresses their convictions.

Therefore, there is no significant benefit to such discussions. For years, we have been aware of the presence of the treacherous faction, as informed by prophetic texts. These texts also informed us that the people on the frontlines will not be harmed by those who oppose or betray them, with the permission of Allah.

And I have complete certainty that some people do not care if an entire nation remains in disgrace, humiliation, oppression, poverty, captivity, desecration of the sacred, and torment of the prisoners. It's as if this state is the natural condition that one should accept. I do not know who this evil is that allows you to eliminate it and then treats you politely and kindly while remaining silent!

I ask Allah, the Majestic and Glorious, to grant us victory over our weakness, to enrich us from our need and poverty, to empower us over our incapacity, and to dignify us from our humiliation. May He not put us in need of any of those who revile or betray us. ⁽¹⁾

“And Allah is predominant over His affair, but most of the people do not know.” (Yusuf: 21)

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(1) The Palestinian scholar, Dr. Muhammad bin Muhammad Al-Astal, from inside Gaza, Sunday, 30 Rabi' al-Awwal 1445 AH / October 15, 2023.