Hamas planned to build 10,000-strong army in Lebanon to invade northern Israel – report

Captured Hamas documents reveal plan to build 10,000-strong army in Lebanon before Oct. 7, use it to open northern front against Israel.

By World Israel News Staff

Hamas sought to transform its presence in Lebanon into a standing army of as many as 10,000 trained combatants before the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, according to newly publicized internal documents recovered by Israeli troops in Gaza.

The documents, detailed in a report published on Sunday by Israel Hayom citing analysis by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, include minutes from an August 2023 meeting of Hamas’s Shura Council in Gaza, less than two months before the October 7 invasion.

They indicate that senior Hamas leaders were frustrated with the pace of the group’s military buildup in Lebanon and with what they regarded as preferential treatment given by Hezbollah to Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

At the meeting, then-Gaza City brigade commander Izz al-Din al-Haddad complained that Hamas had only around 1,000 recruits receiving military training in Lebanon, while Palestinian Islamic Jihad had trained more than 1,500 with Hezbollah’s support.

Al-Haddad warned that Hamas needed to address the disparity if it wanted to remain the dominant Palestinian armed organization.

“We want to be ready in the Lebanon arena,” al-Haddad told the meeting, according to the captured minutes.

Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza and the principal architect of the October 7 attack, was also present.

According to the documents, Sinwar said approximately 1,000 Hamas terrorists were then undergoing training in Lebanon at camps associated with Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. But the longer-term ambition was far greater.

“The aspiration is 10,000 fighters who will be trained and become an army,” Sinwar said, according to the minutes.

Sinwar reportedly believed the expansion could happen rapidly if Hamas resolved political tensions with Hezbollah.

Those difficulties were linked in part to strained relations between Hezbollah and senior Hamas figure Khaled Mashaal, whose opposition to Bashar Assad during the Syrian civil war badly damaged Hamas’s relationship with the Iran-led regional alliance.

The newly publicized minutes add another piece to a growing body of Hamas documents recovered during the Gaza war that describe an effort to build military capabilities well beyond the Gaza Strip and prepare for a future multi-front confrontation with Israel.

Previous documents analyzed by the Meir Amit center showed that Hamas and Iran had already discussed plans for a major force in Lebanon.

One captured document described an arrangement under which approximately 2,000 Hamas operatives would initially be positioned there, with the force eventually expanding to 10,000.

Israel’s military had publicly warned months earlier that Hamas was building a military branch in Lebanon.

In an April 2023 assessment, the IDF said Hamas decided after the 2014 Gaza war to establish a northern force so it would have an additional front available during future fighting with Israel.

The organization recruited Palestinians living in Lebanon, particularly around the Tyre area, according to the military.

That presence was already operational before October 7.

On April 6, 2023, 34 rockets were launched from Lebanon toward Israel in the largest such barrage since the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

Israel blamed Hamas for the attack and subsequently struck Hamas targets in both Gaza and Lebanon.

Hamas’s armed wing continued operating from Lebanese territory after October 7.

The group claimed rocket attacks on northern Israel during the opening days of the war and again in subsequent months, including an April 2024 salvo against an Israeli military position.

The newly revealed documents also fit with evidence of increasingly close coordination between Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran before the massacre.

Previously released Hamas papers showed that a joint intelligence operations room involving Hamas, Hezbollah and the IRGC was established in Beirut during the May 2021 Gaza conflict.

The documents also described meetings in Beirut involving senior Hamas officials, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and senior Iranian commander Saeed Izadi to discuss widening the confrontation with Israel.

Sinwar subsequently wrote to Nasrallah outlining possible scenarios for a future attack on Israel, including a broader assault involving additional fronts. Hamas leaders repeatedly sought assurances that Hezbollah and Iran would participate when a major confrontation eventually began, according to the captured correspondence.

Other material recovered in Gaza has pointed to ambitions considerably larger than the attack ultimately carried out on October 7.

The Washington Post reported in 2024 that seized Hamas records included plans for attacks involving multiple approaches and an effort to draw allied forces into a simultaneous assault from several directions.

Correspondence also showed Hamas seeking Iranian financing and training for thousands of additional fighters. The newspaper noted, however, that some of the proposals were highly ambitious and may never have advanced beyond the planning stage.

Hezbollah began attacking Israel from Lebanon on October 8, opening a northern front that continued alongside the Gaza war. Hamas cells based in Lebanon also participated in attacks, though the massive Hamas force envisioned in the prewar documents never materialized.

For Sinwar, according to the captured minutes, the goal was ultimately to turn that force into something approaching an army — part of a broader strategy in which Israel would face coordinated threats from Gaza and from the north rather than fighting Hamas on a single front.