On Jan. 21, Hamas took to Instagram, releasing a bilingual document in English and Arabic listing its five reasons for launching its onslaught against Israel during the wee hours of Oct. 7:

As a side note, Hamas denied the atrocities its operatives committed against Israeli civilians as “Israeli lies.”

Two aspects of this document stand out: its tone and its omission of Palestinian prisoners. The document takes an apologetic tone, not because Hamas is distressed by its actions, but rather to deflect international and Arab criticism for the Oct. 7 atrocities and the subsequent devastation brought to Gaza by the Israeli response. Over the last week alone, we’ve seen oil-rich Arab nations falter on whether to fund the rebuilding of Gaza, with some saying that they would only participate in funding the reconstruction on their terms (security, statehood and democracy), something not meant to serve as altruistic for the Palestinian cause, but rather to protect their investment, so that radical elements cannot once again take control of Gaza and launch a war with Israel that leads to the destruction of infrastructure and property at the scale we are currently seeing.

Secondly, the document conspicuously omits the release of Palestinian prisoners as a motive for launching this war. This omission raises questions, given Hamas's repeated emphasis that it is committed to releasing all Palestinian prisoners as part of any agreement to end the war and return the........

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