Hamas delayed onslaught until Oct. 2023 in effort to enlist Iran, Hezbollah — NYT

Hamas originally planned to launch a major cross-border attack on Israel in fall 2022 but pushed off the invasion until October 7 last year in an effort to enlist Iran and Hezbollah to join in, according to a report in The New York Times that cites minutes from Hamas secret meetings that Israeli forces uncovered in Gaza.

To persuade Hezbollah, Hamas leaders cited Israel’s “internal situation” — which the report says appears to be a reference to the domestic political unrest over the government’s judicial overhaul push — as a leading reason they were “compelled to move toward a strategic battle.”

According to the Times, despite feeling it had the support of Hezbollah and Iran, Hamas concluded it may need to launch the attack alone before Israel deployed a new air defense system. The Palestinian terror group was also reportedly motivated in part by a desire to disrupt the US-backed initiative for Israel-Saudi normalization.

The report adds that Hamas leaders sought to avoid major clashes with Israel in the two years leading up to the October 7 onslaught to “keep the enemy convinced that Hamas in Gaza wants calm.” The Times also reports that Hamas leaders in Gaza had briefed the terror group’s then-leader Ismail Haniyeh about “the big project” — Hamas’s code name for the attack plans.