A senior Hamas leader has refused to acknowledge that his terror group killed civilians in Israel in the October 7 attack that was carried out one month ago today.

Moussa Abu Marzouk, the Deputy Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, said that ‘women, children and civilians were exempt’ from the marauding attacks and that they only targeted conscripts, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Videos filmed by Hamas fighters themselves, as well as other clips, show them shooting unarmed civilians, while the bodies of men, women and children have been recovered from several communities in southern Israel that were attacked.

Israel says more than 1,400 people in the country were killed, mostly civilians, in the October 7 incursion by Hamas that started the war.

The Palestinian terror group also took more than 240 people hostage, including children and elderly people, back across the border into Gaza.

Israel, which launched a massive bombardment of Gaza and an intensifying ground offensive in response to the attack, has vowed to remove Hamas from power.

Moussa Abu Marzouk, the Deputy Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, said that ‘women, children and civilians were exempt’ from the marauding attacks and that they only targeted conscripts, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary

Emergency personnel stand next to body bags kept outside a property, following the October 7 attack by Hamas, in Kibbutz Alumim, Israel, in this image from social media released on November 6. Israel says more than 1,400 people in the country were killed, mostly civilians killed, in the October 7 incursion by Hamas that started the war

Marzouk’s comments came in an interview with the BBC on Saturday.

The broadcaster said it pressed him on the war in Gaza, specifically focusing on the hundreds of hostages being held inside the besieged coastal strip.

The 72-year-old, who was once a prisoner in the US and who is subject to an asset freeze in the UK under counter-terrorism regulations, said the hostages would not be freed so long as Israel continued to bomb Gaza.

‘We will release them. But we need to stop the fighting,’ he said. 

Challenged about the attack, Marzouk claimed that Mohamed el-Deif, the leader of Hamas’s military wing, had ordered the thousands of gunmen that poured into Israel on October 7 to spare civilians, and only target reservist soldiers.

‘El-Deif clearly told his fighters “don’t kill a woman, don’t kill a child and don’t kill an old man”,’ he told the BBC. Saying only reservist soldiers were ‘targeted,’ he insisted only ‘conscripts […] or soldiers’ were killed.

Women, children and civilians were ‘exempt’ he said.

The BBC said Marzouk appeared irritated at points during the interview. 

When challenged over video footage which clearly shows Hamas fighters shooting and killing civilians, the broadcaster said he avoided answering the question.

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He was also asked whether Hamas’s political wing had been made aware of el-Deif’s preparation for the attack, the largest terror attack in Israel’s history.

Marzouk said the group’s Qassam Brigades military wing ‘don’t have to consult with political leadership. There is no need.’

Hamas’s political wing, which is based in Qatar, often distances itself from its military forces in Gaza, of which they are believed to number around 40,000. 

Children’s toys and personal items lie on the bloodstained floor of a child’s bedroom on October 17, following the deadly infiltration by Hamas gunmen and attack on Kibbutz Beeri

A woman looks at newly dug graves for the victims of the October 7th attack during the funeral of Albert Miles, 80, who was killed in his home in Kibbutz Beeri in the deadly infiltration of Israel by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, at the cemetery in Kibbutz Revivim, October 30

However, many western governments, including the UK, do not distinguish between the two. Britain declared Hamas a terrorist organisation in 2021, saying at the time: ‘the approach of distinguishing between the various parts of Hamas is artificial. Hamas is a complex but single terrorist organisation’.

Marzouk, who is believed to have a net worth in the billions of dollars, has been active in the Islamic political world since 1968. He was elected as Hamas’s first politburo chief in 1992, and has been deputy chairman of the bureau since 1997.

He also founded the Islamic Republic of Palestine – an organisation accused by the United States of raising money for Hamas.

The US listed him as a Specially Designated Terrorist in 1995.

That same year, he was arrested for activities supporting terrorism and deported after two years. He then moved to Jordan, then Syria and then to Cairo in 2012.

Last week, Marzouk declared that the political bureau of his terror group is not responsible for protecting the coastal strip’s civilians.

Palestinian militants ride an Israeli military vehicle that was seized by gunmen who infiltrated areas of southern Israel, in the northern Gaza Strip October 7

Smoke rises as Palestinians ride away from Israel’s kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7

‘We built the tunnels because we have no other way of protecting ourselves from being killed in airstrikes. We are fighting from inside the tunnels,’ he said. 

Passing the buck further, he added: ‘Seventy-five per cent of the population of Gaza are refugees, and it is the UN’s responsibility to protect them.’

The Palestinian death toll has surpassed 10,000, the Health Ministry of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Monday, including over 4,100 children. 

More than 2,300 people are missing and believed to be buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings, the ministry said. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, and Israel says it has killed thousands of fighters.