Mashaal, Khamenei: Oct. 7 was big blow to Israel

Hamas leader abroad Khaled Mashaal claimed on Monday that the Gaza-based terrorist group’s deadly invasion of southern Israel a year ago represented a significant setback for the Jewish state.

“Al-Aqsa Flood [the terrorist group’s name for the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre] returned the occupation [Israel] to square zero and threatened its existence,” Mashaal told Saudi state-owned television news channel Al Arabiya.

He spoke as Israel marks the first anniversary of the deadliest single-day attack on its soil, when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged across the northwestern Negev, murdering some 1,200 people, wounding thousands more and kidnapping 251 to Gaza, while committing widespread atrocities.

In Gaza, 101 people are still being held captive, including 97 from Oct. 7. The IDF has confirmed that 34 of the 97 hostages from Oct. 7 are no longer alive.

Mashaal also asserted that the Oct. 7 attack was “a natural response to the occupation and its accelerating plans for settlement, siege and aggression against Al-Aqsa,” referring to the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City.

He accused Israel of threatening its neighbors Jordan and Egypt despite long-standing peace agreements, saying that “the enemy wants everyone in the region to be subject to him and he does this even with countries that do not fight him,” adding that the Jewish state “attacks Arab and Islamic national security everywhere.”

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei also attacked Israel on Monday to mark the Oct. 7 anniversary, writing in Hebrew on X that “Operation ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ has set the Zionist regime [Israel] back 70 years.”

Tehran’s Lebanese terrorist proxy on Monday vowed to continue to fight against what it described as Israeli “aggression.”

Hezbollah, without a leader since Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah on Sept. 24, acknowledged that it and the Lebanese have paid a “heavy price” since it started attacking Israel on Oct. 8 in support of Hamas, calling it a “support front.”

However, the terrorist group said “we are confident ... in the ability of our resistance to oppose the Israeli aggression,” calling Israel a “cancerous gland that must be eliminated, no matter how long it takes.”