Hamas members, in secret meetings during which they planned an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, also discussed the possibility of convincing Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah to join the attack, The New York Times writes, citing secret documents.
We are talking about the minutes of ten meetings of the political and military leaders of Hamas, which took place over two years, clarifies RBC. They were stored on a computer that the Israeli military discovered in late January during a search of Hamas’ underground command center in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
The group initially planned an attack on Israel, which the documents call a “major project,” in the fall of 2022, but postponed the plans in an attempt to gain support from Iran and Hezbollah, the NYT writes.
In July 2023, Hamas sent a senior official to Lebanon, where he met with a senior Iranian commander and asked for help in attacking “vulnerable targets” early in the attack. The latter said that Iran and Hezbollah support the group’s plans, but need more time to prepare.
The minutes show that Hamas was to discuss the upcoming attack in more detail in a meeting with the Hezbollah leader. Hassan Nasrallah (he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September of this year), but it is not specified whether this was done.
The group relied on the support of its allies, but concluded that it might have to act without their full participation, the newspaper writes.
Hamas has deliberately avoided confrontation with Israel since 2021 so that the October 7 attack was a surprise attack. The group’s leaders believed that “they must convince the enemy that Hamas wants peace in Gaza.”
Documents show that Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip briefed the political leader Ismail Haniyeh (died in an Israeli attack in Tehran in July this year) about the “big project.” Before this, it was not known whether Hania was informed about the impending attack, the NYT indicates.
