A report published by the French newspaper Le Figaro on Wednesday revealed that only three Hamas leaders, Mohammed Deif, Yahya Sinwar, and his brother Muhammad Sinwar, were aware of the exact details and date and time of the Hamas assault on Israel.

According to sources quoted by the report, preparations for the attack began in 2021, with Hamas leaders sending Nukhba terrorists to train in Lebanon.

In the months before the attack, Deif replaced the commanders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades with ones who were less known to Israeli security officials to make it more difficult for Israeli intelligence to uncover the plan. In the month and a half before the attack, Hamas leaders instructed the commanders to avoid contacting each other. Three months before the attack, Dief and Sinwar severed all contact with Hamas political leaders abroad and did not inform them about the pending attack.

Even senior Hamas leader in Lebanon Saleh al-Arouri was only informed about the attack a half hour before it began and was instructed to inform Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. According to the report, Nasrallah was surprised by the attack and was even more surprised that Iran wasn’t informed about it beforehand. Sinwar and Dief expected Hezbollah to join the war against Israel on October 7th in full force and were enraged when Nasrallah refused to go along with their plan, sending a scathing letter to Beirut.

Osama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Lebanon, heard about the attack from the media. Iran also heard about the attack on the news, contradicting its claims that the attack was in retaliation for the assassination of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.

Additionally, following the attack, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh flew to Tehran and asked Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to “fully” join the war but was refused.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)