The New York Times analyzed documents obtained by the Israeli army during the fighting in the Gaza Strip. These are supposed to be dozens of minutes and notes from meetings of senior Hamas officials. The Israeli military considers the documents to be authentic. An American newspaper also considers the documents to be authentic, which consulted on the authenticity of the documents with members of Hamas and experts on this movement.
According to the documents, senior Hamas officials tried to convince their close allies Iran and Hezbollah to join the attack on October 7 last year in its first hours. A senior Iranian official told Hamas representatives that Tehran and Hezbollah support the attack but need more time to prepare. According to the documents, Hamas asked Iran and Hezbollah to attack some important Israeli objects.
Hezbollah finally began shelling northern Israel the day after the attack, on October 8, and Iran did not visibly join the war at first. He carried out his first strike on Israel in April and described it as retaliation for the Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria.
According to CNN, representatives of Hezbollah and Iran denied the information of The New York Times. According to them, neither Tehran nor Hezbollah knew in advance that Hamas had decided to attack Israel on October 7. “Any claim linking Iran or Hezbollah (with the October 7 attack) has no credibility and comes from fabricated documents,” said the Iranian representation at the UN in New York.
Hamas played down the attacks so as not to attract attention
According to the newspaper, the documents also clarify some other circumstances of the attack on October 7. According to records, Hamas delayed the attack by one year. According to The Washington Times, which consulted a similar set of records, Hamas wanted to attack areas further away from the Gaza Strip and was considering, for example, attacks on skyscrapers in Tel Aviv.
The content of the documents also confirms the previous assumptions of analysts that Hamas carried out the attack in an attempt to disrupt the diplomatic rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The documents also claim that Hamas moderated its attacks on Israel between 2021 and 2023 in order not to attract the attention of the Israeli authorities.
On October 7 last year, Hamas attacked Israeli territory in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip. According to the Israeli authorities, he killed 1,200 people and abducted another 250 people to the Gaza Strip. Israel responded with a massive bombardment of the densely populated Gaza Strip, where it later sent ground troops. According to local authorities controlled by Hamas, over 42,000 people died during the fighting in the Gaza Strip. The data does not distinguish between civilians and armed men.
