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Former Knesset member denies Hamas murdered or raped Israelis on Oct 7th

Abdulmalik Dehamsheh told Israel’s Arabic TV that Hamas just took “prisoners of war,” ordinary Gazans massacred and took civilians hostage.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The former leader of the Ra’am (United Arab List) party denied on Israeli TV that Hamas perpetrated any massacres on October 7.

Abdulmalik Dehamshe told Israel’s MiKan Arab-language channel that Hamas forces only “took prisoners of war” from the ranks of “the Israeli police and army” to use in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and that there was no proof that any of the terror organization’s men raped or murdered anyone.

“Show me one picture of a Hamas man who murdered a child or murdered a woman! We did not see such murders,” he said.

He then maintained that those who harmed and abducted Israeli civilians on October 7th were ordinary Gazans who saw how easy it was to enter Israel after the Hamas forces broke through the border in dozens of places.

“Maybe there was, in fact, murder, but if there was – it was done by [Gazan] civilians who came in, not Hamas! All of Gaza came in!” he said.

The former politician’s claims runs counter to the footage filmed and uploaded to social media by Hamas fighters themselves of the many horrific methods they used to torture and kill mostly civilians, including the elderly and children, when they invaded almost two dozen Gazan envelope communities and a dance rave.

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There are also reams of evidence that Hamas and other terrorists dragged and drove elderly people, women, children and even an infant into captivity, belying his shift of blame to Gazan civilians.

He did not explain how over a dozen bodies of hostages, none from the military or police, have been found in Hamas terror tunnels.

The interviewers asked if he was not, in fact, legitimizing what occurred on the day Israelis call “the Black Sabbath.”

“There is no need for me to grant legitimization,” he responded. “It’s a legitimate act, everyone who fights their occupier has international legitimacy according to international law.”

Dehamshe was convicted and served ten years in Israeli prison in the 1970s for recruiting terrorists to carry out attacks for Fatah, the secular nationalist Palestinian terror group that currently serves as the backbone of the Palestinian Authority.

He became more religious in jail, and upon release, used his law degree to defend Hamas prisoners in court, including one he grew close to, the group’s spiritual leader, Ahmed Yassin.

He then got elected to the Knesset on the Ra’am ticket, serving from 1996-2006, with a stint as a deputy speaker of the parliament.

As an MK in 1998 he called any Israeli Arab who served in the IDF “a disgusting criminal.”

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After losing his seat in 2006 he justified the indiscriminate firing of rockets on Israeli civilians, saying that the Palestinians should not be “deprived” of “the right to defend themselves.” He praised the Palestinian use of suicide bombings as well, saying that if it wasn’t for them, “the Palestinian issue would be dead by now.”