More than a year after the attack of October 7, 2023 in Israel which left hundreds dead, Hamas allegedly tried to involve Iran and Hezbollah in the massacres, according to minutes that have remained secret until today today, consulted by the New York Times.
The “grand project” aimed at the “collapse” of Israel. Initially planned for the fall of 2022, the unprecedented attack of October 7, 2023 was reportedly postponed by Hamas, in the hope of creating an alliance with Iran and Hezbollah.
This is what reveals the 30 pages of minutes of the ten secret meetings seized by the IDF and consulted by the New York Times.
These documents shed new light on the organization of the October 7 attack, while questions still remain numerous as to the support that Hamas could have received to plan such an attack, creating a surprise in Israel.
Fine-grained planning
Thus, among the most important information, Hamas would have met with a “high-ranking Iranian commander” in July 2023, telling him that Iran and Hezbollah would be in favor of carrying out a very large-scale attack in Israel, called “the big project”, but that they needed time to prepare.
Hamas leader Yahya Sinouar reportedly met with his top commanders in the terrorist group and plotted for several years for what he hoped would be the most devastating and destabilizing attack against the Jewish state.
This project was also to be discussed with Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah at the time, recently assassinated by the Israeli army. There is no information on whether this exchange ultimately took place.
Nonetheless, Hamas leaders reportedly felt, despite the general support of their allies, that they would have to move forward without their full participation, in part to prevent Israel from deploying a new advanced air defense system before the assault takes place.
The decision to attack was also reportedly influenced by Hamas’s desire to disrupt efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the strengthening of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, and Israeli efforts to exert greater control over the al-Aqsa mosque complex in Jerusalem.
Hamas is said to have deliberately avoided major confrontations with Israel for two years from 2021, in order to maximize the surprise of the October 7 attack. For the leaders, it was a matter of “keeping the enemy convinced that Hamas in Gaza wants calm.”
Iran a major player on October 7
The extent to which Iran and Hezbollah knew of Hamas’s initial plans has been one of the enduring mysteries of October 7. The issue has taken on new resonance in recent weeks, following the Israeli incursion into Lebanon and Iranian strikes on Israel.
Especially since the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had publicly denied that Iran played any role in the attack. U.S. officials reported intelligence showing that top Iranian leaders were taken by surprise, fueling doubts about Iran’s direct role in planning October 7.
However, Hamas leaders have widely spoken of the support they received from their regional allies, and scattered and sometimes conflicting reports indicate that Iranian and Hezbollah officials participated in planning the attack and training the militants. fighters.
These answers were discovered on a computer found in late January by Israeli soldiers as they searched an underground Hamas command center in Khan Younes, southern Gaza, from where the group’s leaders had recently escaped.
