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Secret Documents Show Hamas Tried to Persuade Iran to Join Its Oct. 7 Attack

The Times reviewed the minutes of 10 meetings among Hamas’s top leaders. The records show the militant group avoided several escalations since 2021 to falsely imply it had been deterred — while seeking Iranian support for a major attack.

For more than two years, Yahya Sinwar huddled with his top Hamas commanders and plotted what they hoped would be the most devastating and destabilizing attack on Israel in the militant group’s four-decade history.

Minutes of Hamas’s secret meetings, seized by the Israeli military and obtained by The New York Times, provide a detailed record of the planning for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, as well as Mr. Sinwar’s determination to persuade Hamas’s allies, Iran and Hezbollah, to join the assault or at least commit to a broader fight with Israel if Hamas staged a surprise cross-border raid.

The documents, which represent a breakthrough in understanding Hamas, also show extensive efforts to deceive Israel about its intentions as the group laid the groundwork for a bold assault and a regional conflagration that Mr. Sinwar hoped would cause Israel to “collapse.”

The documents consist of minutes from 10 secret planning meetings of a small group of Hamas political and military leaders in the run-up to the attack, on Oct. 7, 2023. The minutes include 30 pages of previously undisclosed details about the way Hamas’s leadership works and the preparations that went into its attack.

The documents, which were verified by The Times, lay out the main strategies and assessments of the leadership group:

Hamas initially planned to carry out the attack, which it code-named “the big project,” in the fall of 2022. But the group delayed executing the plan as it tried to persuade Iran and Hezbollah to participate.
As they prepared arguments aimed at Hezbollah, the Hamas leaders said that Israel’s “internal situation” — an apparent reference to turmoil over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious plans to overhaul the judiciary — was among the reasons they were “compelled to move toward a strategic battle.”
In July 2023, Hamas dispatched a top official to Lebanon, where he met with a senior Iranian commander and requested help with striking sensitive sites at the start of the assault.
The senior Iranian commander told Hamas that Iran and Hezbollah were supportive in principle, but needed more time to prepare; the minutes do not say how detailed a plan was presented by Hamas to its allies.
The documents also say that Hamas planned to discuss the attack in more detail at a subsequent meeting with Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader at the time, but do not clarify whether the discussion happened.
Hamas felt assured of its allies’ general support, but concluded it might need to go ahead without their full involvement — in part to stop Israel from deploying an advanced new air-defense system before the assault took place.
The decision to attack was also influenced by Hamas’s desire to disrupt efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the entrenchment of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Israeli efforts to exert greater control over the Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, sacred in both Islam and Judaism and known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
Hamas deliberately avoided major confrontations with Israel for two years from 2021, in order to maximize the surprise of the Oct. 7 attack. As the leaders saw it, they “must keep the enemy convinced that Hamas in Gaza wants calm.”
Hamas leaders in Gaza said they briefed Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s Qatar-based political leader, on “the big project.” It was not previously known whether Mr. Haniyeh, who was assassinated by Israel in July, had been briefed on the attack before it happened.

Prelude to War

The documents provide greater context to one of the most pivotal moments in modern Middle Eastern history, showing it was both the culmination of a yearslong plan, as well as a move partly shaped by specific events after Mr. Netanyahu returned to power in Israel in late 2022.

Yahya Sinwar in April 2023 in Gaza City. Documents show that he and other Hamas leaders wanted time to lull Israeli leaders into a false sense of security before attacking Israel. Credit…Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times

Gunmen storm coal mine in southwest Pakistan, killing 20 miners

On Sunday, two people were killed in an explosion at an airport attributed to the Baloch Liberation Army, a violent separatist group that has raised questions about whether Pakistan is safe enough to host a high-profile upcoming summit.

Gunmen stormed accommodation at a coal mine and killed 20 miners in Pakistan’s southwest on Friday, according to police officials.

A search had been launched for the perpetrators of the attack police official, Hamayun Khan Nasir, said.

The gunmen rounded up the men before opening fire, Nasir said. He added that the attackers also fired rockets and lobbed grenades at the mine and its machinery.

Most of the casualties were from Pashtun-speaking areas of Balochistan. Three of the dead and four of the wounded were Afghan. Local shop owners pulled their shutters down to observe a daylong strike against the killings.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed deep sorrow over the attack, whilst Sarfraz Bugti, Balochistan’s chief minister, said “terrorists have once again targeted poor labourers.”

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said those responsible for the attack would face legal repercussions.

No group claimed immediate responsibility for the incident, but suspicion is likely to fall on the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which targets civilians and security forces.

Attack ahead of international summit

The BLA is a separatist group that seeks independence for the southwestern Balochistan region. Earlier this month, it claimed responsibility for a bombing near Karachi airport that killed two Chinese nationals and wounded eight others.

In August, the group killed over 50 people in multiple attacks, including one where 23 people were fatally shot after being taken from buses and vehicles in Balochistan. Authorities responded to the incursion by shooting 21 insurgents in the province.

Balochistan is home to several separatist groups that accuse the federal government in Islamabad of unfairly exploiting the oil-rich region at the expense of local people.

The attacks, including the one on Karachi airport, has raised questions about whether Pakistani forces are capable of protecting foreigners in the country — including their ability to protect high-profile events.

Related

Pakistani separatist group claims bombing that killed two Chinese workers near Karachi airport

Islamabad is hosting a summit next week of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a grouping founded by China and Russia to counter Western alliances.

Authorities have increased security in the capital by deploying troops.

The Interior Ministry this week alerted provinces to take additional measures over concerns that separatists and the Pakistani Taliban could attack public places and government installations.

Russia launches pre-dawn attack on Kyiv, killing at least one resident

At least one person has been killed in a third successive night of drone and missile attacks on Ukraine’s capital city. Although Kyiv’s air defences reportedly shot down most of the incoming missiles, fires were caused by falling debris.

Russia launched a pre-dawn attack on Ukraine’s capital Tuesday, killing at least one person and sending Kyiv’s residents again scrambling into shelters to escape a relentless wave of daylight and nighttime bombardments. Moscow authorities reported a drone attack on the Russian capital.

At least 20 Shahed drones were destroyed by air defence forces in Kyiv’s airspace in Russia’s third attack on the capital in the past 24 hours, according to the Kyiv Military Administration.

The buzzing of drones could be heard over the city, followed by loud explosions as they were taken down by air defence systems.

In Moscow, residents reported hearing explosions and Mayor Sergei Sobyanin later confirmed there had been a drone attack.

Sobyanin said in a Telegram post that the attack caused “insignificant damage” to several buildings and that no one has been seriously hurt, without elaborating.

Residents of two buildings damaged in the attack were evacuated, Sobyanin said.

There was no immediate comment on the attacks from Ukrainian officials.

It was the second reported attack on Moscow after authorities said two drones targeted the Kremlin earlier this month in what was labelled an attempt on President Vladimir Putin’s life.

In the attacks overnight on Kyiv, one person died and three were injured when a high-rise building in the Holosiiv district caught fire. It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze but frequently the falling debris from drones being hit and the interceptor missiles have caused damage on the ground.

The building’s upper two floors were destroyed, and there may be people under the rubble, the Kiyv Military Administration said. More than 20 people were evacuated.

Resident Valeriya Oreshko told The Associated Press in the aftermath that even though the immediate threat was over, the attacks had everyone on edge.

“You are happy that you are alive, but think about what will happen next,” the 39-year-old said.

Oksana, who only gave her first name, said the whole building shook when it was hit.

“Go to shelters, because you really do not know where it (the drone) will fly,” she advised others. “We hold on.”

Elsewhere in the capital, falling debris caused a fire in a private house in the Darnytskyi district and three cars were set alight in the Pechersky district, according to the military administration.

The series of attacks that began Sunday included a rare daylight attack Monday that left puffs of white smoke in the blue skies.

On that day, Russian forces fired 11 ballistic and cruise missiles at Kyiv at about 11:30 a.m., according to Ukraine’s chief of staff, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. All of them were shot down, he said.

Debris from the intercepted missiles fell in Kyiv’s central and northern districts during the morning, landing in the middle of traffic on a city road and also starting a fire on the roof of a building, the Kyiv military administration said. At least one civilian was reported hurt.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it launched a series of strikes early Monday targeting Ukrainian air bases with precision long-range air-launched missiles. The strikes destroyed command posts, radars, aircraft and ammunition stockpiles, it claimed. It didn’t say anything about hitting cities or other civilian areas.