Uncovered Sinwar document anticipated Israel may ‘even use a nuclear bomb’ in response to Oct. 7 attack

Excerpts from a handwritten document by former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar from August 2022, obtained by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center and published by Channel 12, show the terror group’s preparations for the October 7, 2023, large-scale assault on Israel and anticipation towards the possibility Israel would “even use a nuclear bomb” in response.

The document states that Israel would initially be “surprised by the attack and enter into chaos” before responding with “the means and weapons at its disposal,” adding, “It is possible that it will even use a nuclear bomb.” It goes on to describe the planned assault as “a campaign of life or death,” calling for “a popular operation of returning to the villages and recapturing them symbolically.”

According to the document, the plan called for breaching the border fence at 25 locations facing 25 junctions simultaneously using 2,500 fighters, organized into separate, well-trained squads of 100 fighters each, with the objective of seizing the junctions.

Sinwar also laid out a broader force allocation of 10,000 “well-trained fighters,” assigning 2,210 fighters to attack 221 kibbutzim and small communities, 1,600 to eight larger communities, 1,200 to cities, and 2,000 to military bases, more than what actually occurred on October 7, while noting that “no one knows the general objective of the plan.”

The document further instructs terrorists that “the goal is to expel the settlers with their cars,” giving “priority to children and women,” while ordering that “the men aged 17-50 are taken hostage” and that “all phones must be taken, along with any additional documents they are carrying on their person.”

The newly published excerpts come after the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center released a similar Hamas document in October 2025 that had been written by Sinwar and described plans to deliberately create “horrifying images” during the October 7, 2023, massacre and broadcast the atrocities live.