ISTANBUL

The Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023 was a “desperate attempt” by Palestinians to "break the cycle" and get the world’s attention, according to pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil.

“To me, it felt frightening that we had to reach this moment in the Palestinian struggle. I remember I didn’t sleep for a number of days,” said Khalil about Palestinian group Hamas’ cross-border raid that October, speaking to New York Times columnist Ezra Klein.

The raid was followed by Israel’s years-long relentless attack on Gaza, killing over 61,000 people to date, devastating the enclave, and pushing it to the brink of famine.

Pressed to explain his remarks further, Khalil, a former Columbia University student who drew global attention after being arrested for over three months by the Trump administration for pro-Palestine activism, added: “You have an Israeli government that’s absolutely ignoring Palestinians. They are trying to make that deal with Saudi (Arabia) and are just happy about their Abraham Accords without looking at Palestinians, as if Palestinians are not part of the equation. They circumvented the Palestinian question.”

“It was clear that it was becoming more and more violent. By Oct. 6, over 200 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces and (illegal Israeli) settlers. Over 40 of them were children. So that’s what I mean by: Unfortunately, we couldn’t avoid such a moment,” he added, calling the attack an effort “just to break the cycle … (in which) Palestinians are not being heard."

Noting Khalil’s past condemnation of civilian deaths, Klein said that Hamas' Oct. 7 operation "was obviously an operation that did target and kill a lot of civilians” – some 1,200 people – asking Khalil whether he saw this as unavoidable or a mistake.

“Targeting civilians is wrong,” said Khalil, also stressing the need for “an international independent investigation to hold perpetrators to accountability” under international law.

He also underlined that Palestinians have “tried all forms of resistance, including nonviolent resistance,” yet such efforts were repeatedly met with violence by Israel. He cited the 2018-2019 Great March of Return, where numerous participants were killed or maimed by Israeli forces.

“There’s nothing that can justify the killing of civilians, and the international law is very clear about that. We cannot pick and choose when international law applies to us or to others,” he added.

Khalil was arrested this March 8 in New York City and later transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility thousands of miles away, in the southern state of Louisiana.

The Trump administration alleged that Khalil had engaged in antisemitism, a charge he denies.

He was released on bail on June 20 after a federal judge ruled that the law used to detain him was likely unconstitutional. He is now suing the federal government for $20 million over his detention.