Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had been preparing the fatal October 7 attack for more than two years – it was revealed from the documents examined by the New York Times. The attack was originally planned for the fall of 2022, but it was postponed by 12 months in order to gain the support of Iran and Hezbollah.
In discussions with Hezbollah, Hamas explained that they felt it necessary to start a strategic battle because of the domestic political turmoil in Israel, especially the protests caused by judicial reforms. Details of these secret meetings in preparation for the October 7 massacre were discovered during the recent Israeli military operations and later obtained by the New York Times.
The documents contain 30 pages of previously unknown details about the operation of the Hamas leadership and the preparations. From 2021, Hamas deliberately avoided major Israeli conflicts in order to concentrate on the implementation of the “big project”.
In July 2023, Hamas sent a senior official to Lebanon, where he met with a senior Iranian commander, asking for the support needed to launch an invasion. The Iranian official assured Hamas of the support of Tehran and Hezbollah, but they asked for more time to prepare.
However, the October 7 attack ultimately took place without the direct involvement of Iran and Hezbollah, in part because Israel could not deploy its new air defense system in time. About 1,200 Israelis were killed in the attack, and Israel has since launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have died over the past year.
Minutes detailing the preparations for the attack were found at the end of January by a detachment of the Israel Defense Forces in an underground Hamas command post in Khan Younis. The authenticity of the documents was verified by experts, including Salah al-Din al-Awawdeh, a former Hamas fighter and current analyst in Istanbul.
The discovery also raised questions about Israel’s intelligence agencies, as an internal military investigation probed how the information was not learned before the Oct. 7 attack.
Iran’s UN delegation denied the protocol’s allegations. “All planning, decision-making and control was done exclusively by the military wing of Hamas established in Gaza. All claims linking Iran or Hezbollah in any way are discredited and based on false documents,” read the statement provided to the New York Times.
Cover photo: Yahya Sinwar, head of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip (Photo: AFP)
Source: magyarnemzet.hu
