Reports: Hamas explicitly threatens Israel with another Oct. 7-style attack

Hamas recently delivered an unusually blunt message to Israel that it is prepared to carry out another attack resembling the onslaught of October 7, 2023, with a top Israeli military official filing an urgent update on the matter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, multiple Hebrew media outlets have reported.

Senior members of the Palestinian terror group conveyed the message last week to UN humanitarian coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov during a meeting in the latter’s office in the Gaza Strip, and asked for it to be delivered to Israel, the Ynet news outlet reported on Thursday.

Alakbarov then met and conveyed the Hamas message to the IDF’s chief liaison to the Palestinians, who penned the urgent letter to Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, an excerpt of which was published Saturday evening by Channel 13 news.

“Senior group members claimed that IDF activity in the Gaza Strip, the moving of the Yellow Line, and the cancellation of the [Palestinian] elections by the Palestinian Authority are leading Hamas to lose control in the field, and clarified that they are unwilling to accept the continuation of this situation,” Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj Gen. Yoram Halevy reported wrote.

“Against this backdrop, they threatened that, as they see fit, Hamas is ready to again carry out an attack such as the October 7 attack, and that it is prepared to act in this vein on any front in which this becomes possible — in the State of Israel, in Judea and Samaria, and abroad,” he added, using the biblical name of the West Bank.

“This is an unusual threat message, which hasn’t been previously conveyed in this level of bluntness and directness.”

Israel’s security establishment is checking if such an attack can be carried out in practice given the extensive IDF presence in the Strip, Channel 13 reports, though such an attack could materialize in the distant future as well.

Ynet reported that the security cabinet has been presented with security briefings saying Hamas has recently made increased preparations for the option of renewed fighting, including stockpiling weapons and transferring them to civilian areas, recognizing that Israel’s hands are tied on launching large-scale new operations until after the US midterm election on November 3.

Implementation of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza has stalled, with Hamas refusing to disarm and Israel refusing to withdraw from any part of Gaza until that condition is fulfilled.

Meanwhile, the IDF continues to carry out daily strikes on what it says are terror operatives readying imminent attacks, and it has steadily moved the Yellow Line — which separates the IDF-held part of the territory from the Hamas-ruled portion where pretty much all Gazans are staying in — westward, enlarging the IDF-held areas.