Key Takeaways:
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Hamas released a 42-page manifesto defending October 7 as a “calculated” and “glorious” attack, explicitly framing the massacre as justified and foundational to its cause.
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Mainstream media largely ignored the document, despite routinely quoting Hamas-run bodies like the Gaza Health Ministry — missing a key chance to expose Hamas’ ideology in its own words.
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The manifesto showcases Hamas’ moral inversion strategy, glorifying its violence while blaming Israel for all suffering — a narrative echoed in sympathetic outlets that presented the document as contextual “analysis.”
Last Wednesday, Hamas released a document that should have triggered critical coverage across international media.
Titled “Our Narrative: Al Aqsa Flood: Two Years of Steadfastness and the Will for Liberation,” the 42-page PDF issued by the Hamas media office is not a press release, a ceasefire update, or a humanitarian appeal. It is a manifesto. It is Hamas laying out, in its own words, how it understands October 7, why it carried it out, and why it believes the attack remains justified.
But mainstream media outlets completely ignored it. To be clear, those media are right to avoid amplifying terrorist propaganda. But there is a difference between refusing to promote propaganda and refusing to examine it critically.
This document demanded coverage precisely so it could be challenged, interrogated, and exposed. It warranted critical reporting that quoted Hamas’ claims in order to dismantle them, not to echo them.
The contradiction is stark because journalists routinely quote Hamas officials, publish Hamas claims about ceasefire terms, and repeat statements from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry under neutral framing. HonestReporting has documented throughout the war how Hamas exploits this environment to shape coverage and control narrative framing.
Yet when Hamas releases a comprehensive manifesto spelling out its worldview with unusual clarity, the media looks away. That is precisely when scrutiny is most needed.
“The Day of Glorious Crossing”
The unambiguous text makes it crystal clear that Hamas sees its October 7 massacre as inevitable and foundational — an event to be proud of.
October 2023, 7, was no sudden event; it was another chapter in the ongoing struggle with the Israeli occupation. The Al Aqsa Flood operation is not a passing memory but the foundation of our narrative… a historic, pivotal stage in the journey of our cause.
Despite the severe damage to the terrorist organization and Gaza as a whole, Hamas’ language is that of validation and repetition.
Hamas even brands October 7 “The Day of Glorious Crossing,” transforming mass murder into triumph and laundering atrocity into a symbol meant to endure.
Equally significant is what Hamas admits about its intent. The document explicitly rejects any claim that October 7 was spontaneous or reactive.
This operation was not an adventure or an emotional act, but a calculated step that expresses the will to hope and correct the historical course. [It was undertaken] with awareness, planning, faith in God …believing that sacrifice is the path to salvation.
Hamas is telling the world, plainly and deliberately, that October 7 was a strategic choice. That admission alone should have commanded headlines. Instead, it passed almost entirely unnoticed.
The manifesto also reveals Hamas’ most powerful propaganda technique: moral inversion. Hamas casts itself as the embodiment of virtue while shifting all criminality onto Israel, even as it boasts about the harm it inflicted.
For two years, the Palestinian people presented the finest of humanity’s qualities: faith, sacrifice, steadfastness, perseverance, pride, and dignity… [Hamas has] shaken the Zionist society in occupied Palestine to its core, plunging it into military, security, economic, political, and moral crises… the world has come to understand the true criminal and brutal nature of this occupation.
This is a blueprint for reversing responsibility. Hamas glorifies its own war, erases its responsibility in Gaza’s suffering, and presents devastation as proof of righteousness rather than as the foreseeable outcome of its strategy.
Related Reading: How Hamas Manipulates the Media and Controls the Narrative About Its War With Israel
Echoes in Coverage
That logic has echoed throughout much of the war’s coverage. And the document matters because it exposes that logic in Hamas’ own words, unfiltered through spokespeople or Gaza “authorities” that are often quoted by the media.
And this is not Hamas’ first attempt to rewrite history. In 2024, the group released a similar narrative document defending October 7 and its aftermath, again avoiding accountability while appealing to international audiences predisposed to a single moral lens.
Notably, while much of the mainstream ignored the release, then and now, sympathetic or ideologically aligned outlets did not. Drop Site News promoted the current document as Hamas laying out “Motivations and Contexts,” rather than as a terrorist group justifying mass murder. Middle East Eye highlighted Hamas calling for an “impartial investigation” into October 7, again elevating Hamas framing while downplaying what the document actually does, which is rationalize the attack and defend it as calculated and necessary.
Furthermore, Hamas’ call for an “impartial inquiry” is not a gesture of transparency but a strategy of erasure. It comes despite extensive documentation by bodies hardly sympathetic to Israel, including the UN, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, all of which have confirmed that Hamas committed war crimes and atrocities, including sexual violence.
🟢 In a newly published 42-page document, Hamas lays out its “Motivations and Contexts” for the October 7 attack – what it calls the Al-Aqsa Flood operation.
The group says the operation was not a sudden escalation but the result of decades of Israeli occupation, settlement… pic.twitter.com/pS9olmaWAu
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) December 25, 2025
By failing to cover this document critically, the mainstream media surrendered an opportunity to show audiences what Hamas actually believes, how it justifies mass murder, and why its leadership remains committed to violence. This is exactly what happened earlier this month when the media ignored a recent speech by Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, in which he threatened another October 7.
Journalism does not require repeating Hamas’ claims. But it does require confronting them.
When Hamas releases a manifesto that brands October 7 as “glorious,” admits it was planned, and boasts about breaking Israeli society, ignoring it is not restraint.
It is a failure of responsibility at the moment when clarity matters most.
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