Prior to October 7, Hamas repeatedly warned Israel not to evict Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah’s neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, attack worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, torture and abuse Palestinian prisoners, or bomb civilian targets in Gaza.

Israel ignored the warning and bombed a 15-story residential building in Gaza, home to dozens of families and several international media offices. Immediately, Hamas responded by showering most Israeli cities with homemade rockets, forcing Israelis to live in bomb shelters and shutting down Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.

In other words, the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation (better known as the October 7 attacks) did not come out of the blue, Madam First Lady! Hamas fighters didn’t just wake up that day and say,

"C'mon, fellas, let's rock and roll Israel!"

For VP Kamala Harris, and those with short memories or not in the know: since 2007, Israel has kept Gaza under an illegal and inhumane military siege, counting calorie intake for Palestinians and allowing the water in Gaza to become undrinkable, creating a humanitarian crisis widely condemned by the international community.

Ethnic cleansing of Palestinians has always been Israeli policy. Over the past year, under the leadership of the most right-wing government in Israeli history, the Israeli military and settlers have led an escalated campaign of displacement, dispossession, and violent repression against Palestinians across Israel and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, according to Jewish Voice for Peace.

In the 20 years before October 7, 2023, Israel killed at least 8,000 Palestinians in Gaza through bombardment and blockaded Gaza for 18 years, causing countless deaths due to poor health and sanitary infrastructure. THEN came October 7.

Since then, 41,000 Palestinians have been killed by bombings, and an estimated total of 180,000 deaths according to a study published in The Lancet. 2,200,000 people live in a concentration camp with little food, no clean water, and no medical facilities. Only monsters can commit these crimes against humanity.

Eleven months after the war on Gaza, Israel has failed to produce any evidence for its claims of mass rape and beheadings. Despite the absence of testimony, evidence, DNA tests, video/recordings, or even a dress (à la Monica Lewinsky), VP Kamala Harris saw fit during her first presidential debate to parrot Israeli propaganda in an effort to dehumanize Palestinians.

Even President Biden was forced to backpedal his statement early during the Gaza genocide about rape and beheadings, which the Israeli daily *Haaretz* called a hoax.

VP Harris, President Biden, and our Secretary of State are all guilty not only of spreading demagoguery and a smear campaign against Palestinians, but they are also complicit in the genocide in Gaza by providing Israel with bombs, intelligence, and political cover.

They have voted several times against UN ceasefire resolutions that could have easily saved thousands of innocent Palestinian lives, as well as Israeli lives. History will remember all three of them as war criminals.

I am not sure why VP Harris referred to Hamas as a terrorist organization during the debate. However, as the saying goes, "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." I am old enough to remember when former President Reagan invited the head of the Taliban representatives to the White House, calling the "Mujahideen" (Arabic for freedom fighters) the "equivalent of our founding fathers" because they were fighting our enemy at the time, the former Soviet Union.

Like it or not, Hamas are freedom fighters defending Palestinian lands from brutal foreign military occupation by the strongest army in the Middle East and illegal Jewish settlers. I should add that Hamas has never:

• Attacked the US or other western allies.
• Stolen top US secrets.
• Sold our top industrial secrets to our adversaries.
• Interfered in our elections.
• Killed US citizens in cold blood, as Israel did with the USS Liberty, Rachel Corrie, Shireen Abu Akleh, Omar, and Aisha Nur last week, to name a few.

Trust me, "Crime Minister" Netanyahu and the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) lie through their teeth to cover up their crimes in Gaza and their incompetence. By lying on Netanyahu's behalf, VP Kamala Harris is helping Israel escape blame and accountability for its war crimes against Palestinians.

An apology to Palestinians is in order.

Mahmoud El-Yousseph is a Palestinian freelancer for Islamicity.org and ColumbusFreePress.com. He can be reached at [email protected].