The Gazan terrorists sent Iran many attack ideas, after asking for hundreds of millions of dollars in extra funding in 2021.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Secret Hamas documents found by the IDF on computers confiscated in Gaza detailed how the terror organization planned to strike Israel, including by copying the Al Qaeda attack on New York’s Twin Towers, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
The paper said it gained access to 59 Hamas letters and computer documents that Israeli forces had found in the Gaza Strip earlier in the war which revealed that ideas for the October 7 attack on southern Israel had begun percolating at least since 2021.
The trove included missives Hamas head Yahya Sinwar sent to Tehran that year asking for hundreds of millions of dollars for training 12,000 more fighters, in which he promised that if he received this aid he could “destroy Israel completely in two years,” the report said.
Among the plans the report described was a slide presentation from late 2022 one sent to the mullahs that included the idea to commit a 9/11-style attack as part of a many-pronged assault.
The Azrieli Center, they suggested, is close to IDF headquarters, which could be destroyed if the tallest of the trio of Tel Aviv skyscrapers fell, thereby hitting two high-value targets at once.
Another suggested target was the 70-floor Moshe Aviv tower in the Ramat Gan diamond district.
A different plan was to detonate a fuel-carrying train inside an Israeli city, or using the rail lines to bring fighters and bombs into major cities.
While they admitted these proposals were only in the initial stages, they said that they do have “a mechanism that works” to use fishing boats to speed bombs and armed men into Israeli ports.
A completely low-tech idea was presented as well, complete with pictures and descriptions: Constructing horse-pulled chariots that could hold two fighters and a driver, which would be a “fast and light mechanism” that would also be much quieter and therefore be of greater surprise to Israeli forces.
While the October 7 attack did not feature any of these elements, there were also detailed photos of Israeli military bases that could be invaded and schematics of terror attacks that were indeed implemented, at least in part.
The slide presentation boasted that Hamas had managed to gather over 17,000 photos of strategic value, including satellite photos, and each idea was accompanied by pictures of the relevant targets.
The New York Times reported Saturday on another part of the intelligence haul the IDF had procured in Gaza – the minutes of ten meetings top Hamas officials, including ones with Hamas head Yahya Sinwar, had both internally and with Hezbollah and Iranian officials.
The Gazan terrorists even delayed the attack for a year, from the High Holiday period of 2022 to 2023, the report said, while attempting to convince the mullahs to help attack Israel directly, either during or immediately following their invasion of Israel.
Iran has always denied knowing about the planned attacks, and did so again Saturday, through their UN Mission.
“All the planning, decision-making and directing were solely executed by Hamas’s military wing based in Gaza. Any claim attempting to link it to Iran or Hezbollah — either partially or wholly — is devoid of credence and comes from fabricated documents,” it said.
Hamas ultimately went it alone, the NYT report said, with one of their reasons being their fear of a new laser weapon that Israel had announced they had successfully tested in June, which could intercept rockets, mortar shells, drones and anti-tank missiles for a fraction of the cost of the physical Iron Dome rockets.