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Majdi Fathi/TPS-IL on 30 April, 2022
Captured Hamas Documents Reveal Iran and Hezbollah Support for War Against Israel
Jerusalem, 18 March, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- Intelligence documents captured in Gaza confirm Iran and Hezbollah’s coordinated support for Hamas’s October 7 attacks. An analysis of the documents, recently published by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, revealed that Hamas developed a concrete plan to eliminate Israel, working closely with its allies to set the stage for a full-scale assault.
The documents include correspondence between Hamas’ leadership in Gaza and its external figures, including discussions with Hezbollah and Iran. Some of these documents were used in Israeli intelligence investigations into the failures that allowed Hamas’ surprise attack, which caught the Israel Defense Forces off guard. The planning process began as early as 2021, when Hamas intensified its appeals to Iran for financial support, promising an assault that would defeat Israel.
Iran has denied having advance knowledge of the October 7 attack.
In the two years leading to October 7, members of the “Axis of Resistance” – which includes Hamas, Iran, and Hezbollah – debated the nature of the attack. Though the goal of a coordinated multi-front assault was not fully realized, the attack itself still managed to surprise Israeli intelligence, marking a significant escalation in Hamas’ goals. The study was authored by Dr. Uri Rosset, a researcher at Sapir College.
Hamas, since its founding in 1987, had always considered Israel’s existence as illegal and immoral. However, the group had previously seen the destruction of Israel as a long-term objective. But Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, working in coordination with Hezbollah and Iran, began to treat Israel’s destruction as a practical and achievable goal.
This shift began in the aftermath of a two-week war in May 2021, according to the documents. About one month after that war, Sinwar, Hamas’s overall military commander Mohammed Deif, and Deif’s deputy Marwan Issa requested $500 million over two years from Iran in a letter to Esmail Qaani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Guard Corps.
In a separate letter to Ismail Haniyeh shortly afterward, Sinwar detailed three war scenarios. Sinwar’s preferred scenario involved a coordinated attack during a Jewish holiday by all Axis of Resistance members in Lebanon, Syria Iraq, and Yemen but excluding Iran. A second scenario had Hamas playing a leading role with other allies, while Hezbollah would use “a quarter or a third of its power, keeping the remaining forces for deterrence and the strategic campaign.” The third scenario left the bulk of the fighting to Hamas while Hezbollah would have played a limited or indirect role.
Haniyeh responded to Sinwar that Iran and Hezbollah endorsed the coordinated, multifront attack.
“[The first scenario] was approved in the discussion we held with our allies; we are awaiting its final review in additional meetings, particularly with the Iranians, and we will follow up on the necessary preparations for it as outlined above,” Haniyeh wrote.
The documents also reveal that Hamas had intensified its ties with Qatar and Iran in the lead-up to the attack, with Sinwar presenting a final strategic plan in 2023. In mid-June, a Hamas delegation, led by Sinwar, visited Iran and met with senior regime officials who recognized the “realistic opportunity” to eliminate Israel.
Rosset suggested that Israeli intelligence may have dismissed certain statements as bluster, not credible threats. Despite heavy losses since the October 7 war, Hamas’s goal of destroying Israel persists.
“In the long run, if Hamas recovers, it is not improbable that the movement could once again regard destroying Israel as a practical plan,” Rosset said.
At least 1,180 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 59 remaining hostages, 36 are believed to be dead.
