Iran has denied reports about “secret documents” allegedly created by Hamas and later obtained by Israel linking the Islamic Republic to Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel last October.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel and took some 250 hostage, according to Israeli officials. Almost 100 hostages remain in captivity, less than 70 of whom are believed to be alive. Israel subsequently launched its military operation in Gaza, which has killed roughly 42,000 Palestinians so far, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry based in the Hamas-led territory. Local health officials don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants but say many of those killed were women and children.
Just after the first anniversary of the Palestinian militant attack, The New York Times, in an article titled “Secret Documents Show Hamas Tried to Persuade Iran to Join Its Oct. 7 Attack,” revealed on Saturday what was said to be in the minutes of several secret meetings Hamas held in the lead-up to October 7 and later obtained by the Israeli military. The documents were said to show efforts by Hamas to persuade its allies, Iran and Hezbollah, to join in the attack.
Iran provides funding, weapons and training to Hamas and Hezbollah, according to a 2021 terrorism report by the U.S. Department of State.
In response, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations told Newsweek on Saturday: “While Doha-stationed Hamas officials have themselves stated that they, too, had no prior knowledge of the operation and that all the planning, decision-making, and directing were solely executed by Hamas’s military wing based in Gaza, any claim attempting to link it to Iran or Hezbollah—either partially or wholly—is devoid of credence and comes from fabricated documents.”
Later that same day, The Washington Post published a separate article also citing alleged Hamas documents obtained by Israeli forces that appeared to show plans for an even larger-scale attack against Israel, as well as appeals by Hamas to Iranian officials for greater support. The report said it was unclear whether Iranian leadership was ultimately aware of the plots and cited Israeli and other Middle Eastern officials saying that Tehran expressed anger over not being informed of the attack launched on Oct. 7.
In a follow-up statement, the Iranian Mission told Newsweek: “We regard the Israeli regime as a mendacious criminal, anti-human entity and place no credence in their illusions. They have a long history of spreading falsehoods, fabricating already-counterfeit documents, and conducting deceptive psychological operations.”
Newsweek has reached out to Israel’s military via email for comment on Saturday during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.
According to the alleged meeting minutes cited by the Times, Hamas sent a top official to Lebanon in July 2023 to meet with a senior Iranian commander to request help with hitting sensitive sites at the beginning of the planned attack. The commander told Hamas that Iran and Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group, were supportive of the attack in principle but needed extra time to prepare.
The purported minutes also planned a meeting for Hamas to further discuss the attack with Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s former leader who Israel killed in a strike last month. The minutes did not clarify if the meeting actually happened.
According to these documents, Hamas felt it had general support from its allies, but thought it might need to go through with the attack without their full involvement.
The trove reported on by the Washington Post included a document entitled “Strategy to build an appropriate plan to Liberate Palestine” that detailed Hamas plans to strike Israel from multiple fronts and also target skyscrapers, railways, a shopping mall, and theater, among other locations. The document deliberated on the feasability of converting fishing vessels to explosive-laden attack craft and deploying horse-drawn assault carriages, along with other schemes.
Meanwhile, tensions in the Middle East have been escalating—with fears of an all-out war between Israel, Iran, and Iran’s network of proxies known as the Axis of Resistance, which includes Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen—after Hezbollah’s electronic devices exploded last month in a coordinated attack that it claimed Israel was behind. Israel has not taken responsibility for the attack that killed dozens and injured thousands more.
On October 1, Iran fired a barrage of nearly 200 missiles at Israel, most of which U.S. and Israeli officials said were intercepted. Iran said its attack was in retaliation for Israel killing the head of Hamas in Tehran in July, as well as the killing of Nasrallah along with a senior Iranian military official in Beirut last month and other operations tied to Israel in the region.
On Friday, the U.S. announced new sanctions on Iran’s “ghost fleet” of ships and companies connected to the country’s energy sector in response to the October 1 missile attack.
Update 10/13/2024 12:34 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to include additional reporting of alleged Hamas documents as well as further comment provided by Iranian officials.
