Why Hamas is selling its assault on Israel as a holy war
Palestinian worshippers pray outside Jerusalem's Old City while Israeli forces stand guard on October 13. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
When Hamas, the Islamic Palestinian terrorist group, stormed into southern Israel on October 7, took over military bases, massacred more than 1,300 Israelis—most of them civilians—and kidnapped 150, it dubbed its military operation the “Al-Aqsa Deluge.”
The reference to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which includes the Dome of the Rock, as well as the smaller Al-Aqsa Mosque, was clearly intended as a rallying cry to unite Muslims by convincing them that their faith is under assault.
Expressions like “Free Al-Aqsa” are intended to galvanize Muslims against non-Muslims, said Shuki Friedman, vice president of the Jewish People Policy Institute and an expert on Islamic law at the Peres Academic Center. They help to unify the world’s nearly 2 billion Sunni and Shiite Muslims, who have been at odds, and sometimes war, for centuries.
