Interview with Izz El-Din Al-Haddad, Member of Al-Qassam Brigades, On The Film “What is Hidden is Greater”

The occupation leadership, which relies on the power of America and the West, will have no choice but to comply with our just demands to stop the aggression, withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip, release our prisoners in the occupation’s prisons—especially those sentenced to life imprisonment—lift the siege, and begin reconstruction.

Since October 1, 2023, the leadership of the military apparatus has been in continuous session around the clock to approve plans, finalize details, and coordinate execution timings.

In the 24 hours preceding the zero hour, command and control rooms were linked to the central operations room overseeing the execution. Troops tasked with carrying out the attack were mobilized, and combat support weapons were on full alert until 6:30 AM on the morning of October 7.

Our attack was meticulously coordinated with the maneuvers our fighters had trained for. At zero hour, our rocket salvos, drone and glider swarms, and naval units synchronized with thousands of elite Al-Qassam infantry who breached the separation barrier. By God’s grace, the barrier collapsed at the hands of engineering unit fighters in a breathtaking scene under divine protection, embodying the Quranic verse: “Surprise them through the gate. If you do, you will certainly prevail.”

The Gaza Division fell, by God’s grace and success, within a few hours, marking the astonishing success of Al-Aqsa Flood operation. Despite the operation’s massive scale, the enemy obtained no information about it, and its defenses were ineffective against our fighters. Our fighters demonstrated remarkable skill, courage, and the highest levels of ethics and responsibility in the field.

The occupation has intensified its crimes against our prisoners after placing them under the responsibility of the racist and fascist minister Ben Gvir. These crimes include killing through starvation, as in the case of Sheikh Khader Adnan, neglecting sick prisoners to death, like Nasser Abu Hmeid and Walid Abu Daqqah, or imposing unprecedented life sentences spanning thousands of years under unbearable conditions.

Here in Gaza, the siege was systematically tightened to subject our people to slow death. We could not stand idly by or merely observe. It has never been part of our resistance doctrine to neglect or delay in supporting our Prophet (peace be upon him). Hence, Al-Aqsa Flood became necessary to thwart the enemy’s systematic plans with an unprecedented and seismic preemptive strike in defense of our sanctities, people, and resistance.

We warned that this reality could not be tolerated or accepted. However, the occupation attempted to deceive us and neutralize our resistance in Gaza by slightly improving living conditions in the Gaza Strip and offering partial facilitations, in exchange for disconnecting the situation in the West Bank, Al-Quds, and the prisoners from Gaza. This, of course, strengthened our resolve to activate the military option, especially after all other options failed. The military leadership issued directives to the intelligence and operations departments to begin gathering information and preparing the necessary plans.

We detected signals and seized information confirming the enemy’s plans to launch a devastating war on Gaza, based on their belief that we would not align with their proposals. The information we obtained indicated specific timings for this treacherous attack, which was planned to take place right after the Jewish holidays.

It would begin with a surprise aerial assault targeting all resistance factions, followed by a massive ground invasion aimed at devastating our people, land, and resources.