Former PA PM defends Oct. 7 massacre: “The Palestinian people has the right to defend itself”
Former PA Prime Minister and Fatah Central Committee member Muhammad Shtayyeh: "I woke up [on Oct. 7, 2023], turned on the news and opened up the phone, and suddenly [saw] indescribable scenes: paragliders, border breaches, motorcycles in action, bodies lying around, fires here and there, people returning from the 1948 borders (i.e., Israel) [to the Gaza Strip], people loading things, and the like. [It was] an indescribably strange situation. The news initially spoke of the killing of 1,400 Israelis within 24 hours. The battle continues, airstrikes, enormous confusion, surprise in Israel, surprise in the world, and surprise also among us. In other words, we were surprised by this scene…
In a meeting held on Oct. 7, we [the PA] issued a statement, and one sentence was added to the statement: ‘The Palestinian people has the right to defend itself.' All the official Palestinian entities, our ambassadors, our ministers, the [PA] presidential office spokesperson, and [I] the prime minister, everyone, all of us were asked one question. The first question that every journalist and every official element opened with was: "Do you condemn Oct. 7?" And we used to answer in the same way: That the Palestinian people's tragedy did not start on Oct. 7, that the Palestinian issue is 76 years old, since 1948, and therefore these are cumulative events, and in any case we believed that the matter [Oct.7] is one of the chapters of the struggle, and one of the chapters of the conflict." …
Al-Arabiya TV host: "How would you define the Oct. 7 operation now?"
Muhammad Shtayyeh: "Look, the Oct. 7 operation is a daring operation, unprecedented in history, honestly, and it is an important chapter in the history of the Palestinian struggle."
[Al-Arabiya TV, YouTube channel, July 29, 2025]
Muhammad Shtayyeh was PA Prime Minister when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.