Newly uncovered documents captured in Gaza during the ongoing war reveal extensive coordination between Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah and Qatar in the years leading up to the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, shattering the widely held perception that Hamas planned the assault alone.
Intelligence obtained from letters, conversations and meetings in Beirut and Tehran shows that Yahya Sinwar, Hamas leader in Gaza, and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas political chief based in Qatar, maintained continuous contact with Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and senior commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a detailed report by Israel’s Channel 12 News.
Already in 2021, following the IDF’s “Operation Guardian of the Walls,” Sinwar began formulating an attack plan, with Iranian and Hezbollah backing, the documents show. Hamas requested $500 million from Tehran over two years to fund its war preparations.
In high-level meetings, Nasrallah explicitly endorsed the goal of Israel’s destruction, while Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reportedly approved Hamas spearheading the attack without Hezbollah’s full participation.
Captured communications also indicate Hamas sought to establish a “military” force of 250 operatives in Southern Lebanon, leveraging Hezbollah infrastructure to open a second front against Israel.
The revelations raise new questions about Israeli intelligence failures. Despite warnings from the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) as early as 2019 regarding Hamas’s use of Qatari cash infusions, and evidence of escalating coordination between Hamas and Iran, the Mossad continued to support a policy of economic incentives aimed at stabilizing Gaza, according to the report.
A Mossad internal review concluded that operational details of Hamas’s plans were not conveyed to Iran or Hezbollah, and therefore no concrete warning could be issued. However, analysts suggest the captured documents point to critical intelligence gaps that could have enabled Israel to thwart the devastating Oct. 7 assault.