Hamas’s deadly attack on October 7 last year took Israel back to “square zero”, a senior official said on Monday on the first anniversary of the group’s deadly storming of southern Israel which sparked the war in Gaza.

READ ALSO:Middle East unrest heightens one year after Hamas attack on Israel

“Al-Aqsa flood returned the occupation to square zero and threatened its existence,” Khaled Meshaal, the former head of Hamas, said on the Al Arabiya TV station, using the group’s name for the attack.

Last year’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

At least 41,870 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The UN has acknowledged these figures as reliable.

READ ALSO:Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary

Meshaal said last year’s October 7 attack was “a natural response to the occupation and its accelerating plans for settlement, siege, and aggression against Al-Aqsa,” referring to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City.

He also accused Israel of threatening Egypt and Jordan, despite long-standing peace agreements between the countries, saying “The enemy wants everyone in the region to be subject to him and he does this even with countries that do not fight him”.

He said that Israel “attacks Arab and Islamic national security everywhere”.