Footage from 2022 shows Hamas commanders overseeing dry run of October 7 attack

A lengthy video from 2022 shows a group of Hamas leaders sitting in a conference room and appearing to manage a dry run for what would be the terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack.

In the footage, aired by Channel 13 on Monday, the men can be seen sitting around a long table, some in military fatigues and others in civilian garb.

One of the men is Izz al-Din al-Haddad, who currently leads Hamas in Gaza.

Hamas documents and videos have demonstrated that the terror group had been planning an invasion of Israel for years.

The footage, which the network paired with previously seen video of Hamas terrorists training for the onslaught, shows one instance of the terror group actively planning portions of the attack, including its seaborne invasion of Zikim Beach, and its operatives’ infiltration into Israeli homes.

In the video, Hamas commanders can be seen praising the invading terrorists, deriding Israel as “confused” and vowing to leverage the success of the attack to release Palestinian security prisoners held by Israel.

המקום: חמ"ל המבצעים של חמאס ברצועת עזה
הזמן: אוקטובר 2022 (ממשלת בנט לפיד גנץ)
הארוע: תרגיל חמאס על חדירת אנשי הקומנדו וכיבוש בסיס זיקים
כך התכונן חמאס ל7 באוקטובר
שימו לב טוב לוילון המתנופף, לכוסות האספרסו המתמלאות, לצלחת התמרים על השולחן, ולרובה שזרוק על השולחן
הכתבה של… pic.twitter.com/DlMXrWdoyS

— CHAGAI DOTAN (@CHAGAID) February 23, 2026

The video was taken in October 2022, a year before the attack, and near the end of the tenure of the government led by former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. Channel 13 did not identify the source of the video.

The conference room, which the network called a “war room,” is outfitted with a detailed map of Gaza, as well as telephones and other communications and surveillance equipment.

Throughout the video, Hamas commanders from the elite Nukhba Force can be seen communicating on the phone with operatives practicing the attack.

“They have destroyed two pieces of military equipment and killed four soldiers,” one of the men can be heard saying on the phone during the simulation. “The enemy is confused.”

The men tally fighters who “died” in the simulated attack while congratulating others on their successes.

“The destruction was total? How many injured? Lightly? Can they be treated in the field?” one of the men says on the phone, apparently talking to a field commander. “How many martyrs?”

At one stage, the commanders watch a filmed simulation of an invasion of Zikim Beach from the sea. On October 7, terrorists landed on the beach using speedboats and murdered 17 civilians in the area, including a number of children.

The film continues, with commander after commander phoning in from the field to relay their successes in the war game, as the men in the war room appear pleased that the simulation is going as planned.

For years, Hamas and other Gaza terror groups published footage from major annual drills that simulated some of the tactics they eventually used during the brutal October 7 onslaught.

A slickly produced two-minute propaganda video posted to social media by Hamas on September 12, 2023, showed the terrorists using explosives to blast through a replica of a Gaza border gate, sweep in on pickup trucks, and then move building by building through a full-scale reconstruction of an Israeli town, firing automatic weapons at human-silhouetted paper targets.

The IDF had detailed intelligence of Hamas attack plans during the weeks, months and years before the October 7 massacre — which officials largely ignored, believing it to be empty boasting — and a slew of testimonies revealed that senior military officers had ignored or dismissed alarms sounded by lower-ranking soldiers.