Game evoking Oct. 7 Hamas attack pulled after police appeal, creator says

A computer game that allows users to recreate aspects of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel has been removed from the popular gaming platform Steam in the United Kingdom at the request of counterterrorism police, according to emails and the game’s creator.

Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, released in 2022, lets gamers play as the fictional character “Ahmad al-Falastini,” a young Palestinian student, as he takes revenge on Israeli soldiers who tortured him and killed his family.

An updated version of the game called Operation al-Aqsa Flood, the name Hamas uses for its October 7, 2023 attack, was released on Steam earlier this month.

A cut scene for the game shows the main character entering Israel’s Re’im military base via a motorised hang glider, similar to incursions made by Hamas fighters on October 7, while wearing a green scarf around his forehead. Green is the colour of the Hamas flag.

Fighters then attack Israeli soldiers and vehicles and execute a line of unarmed soldiers with shots to the back of the head.

The game’s distributor told developer Nidal Nijm that it had removed the game at the request of UK police, according to emails seen by Al Jazeera.

In an October 24 email, Valve Corporation told Nijm that it had been contacted by the Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit, but did not share further details.

“As with any authority for a region that oversees and governs what content can be made available, we have to comply with their requests. Unfortunately, I don’t have a contact available to refer you to,” the email said.

Neither Valve Corporation, Steam, nor the UK Metropolitan Police, which oversees the Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit, immediately responded to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment.

Operation al-Aqsa Flood continues to be available on Steam in other countries, except for Germany and Australia, where the game is restricted due to rules regarding age restrictions.

Nijm, who identifies as a Muslim Brazilian, said that his game was intended to be a political protest and was not affiliated with any specific Palestinian group.

He said his father was a member of Fatah and fought in the Lebanese Civil War before moving to Brazil.

“I tried to show that we Palestinians have rights to resist against Israeli occupation and the genocide we clearly see [on] a daily basis on the news. But I also like to always stay ‘under the thin red line’ between freedom of speech and ‘terrorist propaganda,’” Nijm told Al Jazeera.

Operation al-Aqsa Flood’s cut scene was intended to be provocative and “to ‘trigger’ Zionists”, Nim said, but the gameplay itself is more toned down, with players immediately failing if they shoot unarmed civilians.

The game Operation al-Aqsa Flood was released earlier this month [Courtesy of Nidal Nijm]

Nijm said that if his game is banned in the UK, authorities should also ban Call of Duty Black Ops 6, a first-person shooter set during the Gulf War that lets people play as American soldiers and kill Iraqi soldiers.

“I do not blame Valve nor Steam; the blame is on the UK government and authorities that are pissed off by a video game. On their flawed logic, the most recent Call of Duty Black Ops 6 should be banned, as well,” he said.

“As you play as an American soldier and go to Iraq to kill Iraqi people. What I can say is that we see clearly the double standards.”

Nijm said the game has been downloaded by about 50,000 users.

Reviews on Steam are mixed, with some users expressing praise for its political message and others criticising the quality of the graphics.

“[The game] is quite fun to play, if a little janky, and is a nice refresher from the constant US propaganda in the shooter genre,” wrote one Steam user.

Professional reviews have been more negative.

Emanuel Maiberg, a writer for 404 Media, which first reported on the UK ban, said the game “sucks” and is in “bad taste,” though he acknowledged its similarities to the Call of Duty series.

Steam had come under fire on social media over Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and other pro-Palestinian content before the UK ban or the release of the October 7-themed update.

Late last year, right-wing influencer Chaya Raichik, who goes by the moniker Libs of TikTok, said that Nijm’s game allowed players to simulate being a “Hamas te*ro*ist who k*lls Jews in the Old City of Jerusalem while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar.'”

“Dozens of comments support calling for the g*noc*de of Jews. This is available for your kids to play,” Raichik said on X.

In April, some Steam users called for a boycott of the platform after it released the game Toofan AlAqsa, a first-person shooter game that lets users shoot Israeli soldiers.

“Because there’s not enough violence propagated against Jews worldwide, @Steam thought it would be a great idea to platform a game aimed at shooting Jews,” Stop Antisemitism, a US advocacy group, said on X.

Hamas’s October 7 attack killed 1,139 people and wounded more than 8,700 others, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza has killed at least 44,282 Palestinians and injured more than 104,000 others, according to Gaza authorities.