The event that escalated the situation in the Middle East a year ago could have had a completely different scale. The Palestinian Hamas movement intended to organize a larger attack on Israel and sought support from Iran and Hezbollah. This information, citing documents discovered in Gaza by the Israeli army, has been reported by The Washington Post and The New York Times.
According to this information, Hamas militants planned a series of terrorist attacks using railways, boats and horse-drawn carriages. The attack on Israel was planned to be carried out from three directions: north, south and east. The radicals also aimed to destroy a skyscraper in Tel Aviv.
Hamas Politburo Chief Yahya Sinwar appealed to the Iranian side, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, for military and financial assistance in the implemention of the plan. Hamas promised Iran that it would destroy Israel within two years. A letter from 2021 reveals the scale of the requested assistance: $500 million and assistance in training 12,000 militants. There is no information on whether Hamas received a response from Iran. However, it is noted that the attack on October 7 was a surprise for Iran and caused discontent.
The media publishing the information clarify that the authenticity of the documents cannot be definitively confirmed, but it is emphasized that this information is consistent with the intelligence assessments of the USA and allies. U.S. officials have expressed confidence in the documents' authenticity.
Iran's Permanent Mission to the UN reports that Israel is spreading disinformation and denies that Tehran was aware of Hamas' plans to attack Israel.
"Given that Hamas officials in Doha stated that they had no prior knowledge of the operation and that all planning, decision-making and targeting was carried out exclusively by the Gaza-based Hamas military wing, any claims to link it, in part or in whole, to Iran and Hezbollah are not credible and are based on fabricated documents",
Iranian diplomatic statement says.
