Reasons for Hamas Attack on Israel

January 15 marked 100 days since Hamas’ savage October 7 attack on Israel. The attack triggered a prolonged response from Israel, intent on wiping out Hamas in the Palestinian territories. But what was behind the initial attack? Western media tend to point to years of “Israeli subjugation.” However, a different picture emerges from other sources, including the testimony of a key Hamas leader.

The Palestine Chronicle reported on January 14 that Abu Obeida, the spokesman for Hamas’s military arm, delivered a televised speech marking the 100-day milestone, in which he clearly outlined in his own words the reason for the deadly attack. Obeida declared, “We look back 100 days to remember the educated, the complicit, and the incapacitated among the world powers governed by the law of the jungle, reminding them of an aggression that reached its peak against our path (Al-Quds) and Al-Aqsa, with the start of its actual temporal and spatial division, and the bringing of red cows as an application of a detestable religious myth designed for aggression against the feelings of an entire nation in the heart of its Arab identity, and the path of its prophet (the Night Journey) and Ascension to heaven” (emphasis added). Al-Quds is an Arabic name for Jerusalem; Al-Aqsa is a mosque on the Temple Mount. And the “red cows” refer to five spotless red heifers imported to Israel from Texas in 2022 (Jerusalem Post, September 20, 2022). The Bible prescribed the ashes of a spotless red heifer for cleansing from defilement (see Numbers 19). These animals, donated by an American who bred them for this very purpose, are seen by many Orthodox Jews as making it possible to begin again to offer animal sacrifices. Of course, any such action threatens the status quo on the Temple Mount, and the growing interest in this possibility seems to be what Abu Obeida was referring to.

Jerusalem will become the focal point of the strife in the Middle East. There are other issues, but this city, its Temple Mount, and the threat of Jewish worship on this highly contested site will be a flashpoint for future prophetic events that will profoundly impact the modern nation of Israel—and the entire world. For more information, read or listen to “Jerusalem: Future Capital of the World.”