Partygoers at the Supernova Psy-Trance Festival who filmed the events that unfolded on Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: Yes Studios

Last week, Israel marked one year since Hamas’ gruesome massacre and murder of approximately 1,200 Israelis and foreigners in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The number of Israelis murdered on Oct. 7 was 20 times greater than Americans murdered on September 11, 2001, proportional to the population.

On October 7, a reported 3,800 Hamas terrorists and 2,200 Gazan civilians entered Israel from the Gaza Strip accompanied by massive rocket fire, murdering children, youth, women, men, elderly, and the disabled.

Hamas beheaded babies and burned entire families alive in their homes. They raped women in front of their children and shot children in front of their parents. They executed the elderly. They took 251 young and old people hostage — dead or alive.

Since Hamas’ attack and launch of its terror war against Israel, Palestinian Media Watch has exposed the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah’s reactions to the massacre, to Hamas and Hezbollah’s continued attacks on Israel, and to Israel’s response.

While praising Hamas’ carnage in southern Israel, the PA/Fatah also denied the massacre had even taken place, or else claimed that Israel had started the war and even committed the Oct. 7 atrocities itself.

In addition, the PA/Fatah added that Hamas’ attack served as an excuse for Israel to advance a pre-planned plot to empty not only the Gaza Strip, but also the West Bank of Palestinians.

Here are some of PMW’s reports on PA/Fatah denying and lying about Oct. 7 in the weeks after the massacre:

• PA libel: Oct. 7 attack, beheading of babies, rape, and burning of women are “stories and tales spun from the imagination”
• Outrageous PA libel: Israel itself committed the October 7 massacre to justify the attack on Gaza
• Israel wanted Hamas attack to happen just as the US wanted Sept. 11, 2001 attacks — Fatah official libels Israel and the US
• Top PLO official: Israel “killed their [own] civilians, committed all these crimes and burned the bodies”
• PA denies Hamas murdered Israeli civilians, claims it fought “military squads”
• PA TV libel: Israel lied about Hamas killing children
• Top PA official lies, claims Hamas didn’t murder children
• Abbas’ advisor lies, claims Hamas didn’t murder children
• Ignoring evidence, Abbas’ advisor repeats libel that Israel — and the US — bombed Gazan hospital
• Don’t confuse us with the facts — PA repeats lie about hospital bombing
• Abbas’ advisor: Israel’s defense is “satanic Israeli plan supported by the US” to empty “Palestine” of Palestinians
• Abbas’ advisor: Israel’s goal is “to uproot and erase the Palestinian people”
• October 7 denial: Palestinian Authority lies led to worldwide phenomenon

As more and more evidence has surfaced of the atrocities on Oct. 7, the outright denials of the massacre have become fewer.

Some PA officials have instead shifted to criticizing Hamas for not consulting with the PA in advance:

• Abbas’ advisor criticizes Hamas for not “consulting and briefing” the PLO about October 7 massacre insert video to play

Others have called for more of the same and even for the genocide of Jews — kill them “one by one.” You can see a video of that here.

Meanwhile, others justify the massacre and all previous terror as “self-defense”:

• PA Shari’ah Judge justifies Oct. 7 massacre and previous Palestinian terror waves as defense of the Al-Aqsa Mosque insert video to play

Even though there has been a diversity of comments and reactions to the Oct. 7 horrors, it would be difficult to find a Palestinian who openly speaks against what Hamas did to Israelis that day. On the contrary, Palestinian Media Watch exposed a poll showing that 98% of Palestinians say that the events of Oct. 7 “made them proud.”

The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.