Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was determined to persuade Iran and Hezbollah to join a Hamas cross-border attack on Israel according to minutes of Hamas’s secret meetings seized by the IDF and obtained by The New York Times.

The Hamas documents, which consist of minutes from 10 secret Hamas leadership meetings prior to the October 7 attack, also revealed that Hamas initially planned to carry out the attack, code-named as “the big project,” in the fall of 2022.

But Hamas  delayed the attack in order to continue trying to convince Iran and Hezbollah to join them, telling Hezbollah that Israel’s “internal situation” – the leftist protests on the streets – helped “compel them to move toward a strategic battle.”

In July, a top Hamas official met with a senior Iranian commander in Lebanon and requested helping in attacking sensitive sites at the beginning of the attack. The Iranian commander said that Iran and Hezbollah were supportive but needed more time to prepare. Hamas felt secure of its allies’ general support but ultimately decided it would launch the attack alone.

According to the documents, Hamas deliberately avoided major conflict with Israel from 2021 in order to “keep the enemy convinced that Hamas in Gaza wants calm” and to maintain focus on “the big project.”

The minutes also showed that Hamas leaders in Gaza briefed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh on “the big project.”

Hamas leaders debated whether to launch the attack on Sept. 25, 2023, which was Yom Kippur, or on Oct. 7, Simchas Torah. They wanted to launch the attack before the end of 2023 because Israel had announced it would soon launch a new kind of laser missile defense system that could destroy Hamas rockets more efficiently. Hamas also wanted to derail efforts for a Saudi-Israel normalization deal.

(YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)