War cabinet observer Deri: Hamas had far more devastating plans for October 7

Aryeh Deri, who sits as an observer in the war cabinet, says in an interview that Hamas had plans for its October 7 onslaught that would have been far more devastating.

In an interview (Hebrew link) with the Kikar HaShabbat website published earlier today, Deri, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party in the coalition, says, “We know now what we didn’t know then.”

He elaborates that since the start of the ground operation, “the IDF has gone into Hamas [command] posts and seized vast amounts of material. We now see, in black on white, what their plans were for Simhat Torah — for many Simhat Torahs, heaven help us.” (Simhat Torah is the Jewish festival that coincided this year with October 7.)

“The grand plan was completely different,” he says, indicating that the terrorists had far greater and more devastating ambitions.

He adds that Iran and Hezbollah are furious with Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, because he didn’t tell them about the timing of the onslaught.

“Try to imagine what would have happened if in the north, in Judea and Samaria, if in those cities… that was their original plan,” says Deri without elaborating further.