Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the October 7, 2023, massacre, attempted to convince both Iran and the Hezbollah terror group to join the attack on the Gaza border area, The New York Times reported.
The report, based on documents received by the Times, revealed that Hamas had planned to carry out the attack - which it nicknamed "The Big Project" - in the fall of 2022. However, the plans were delayed due to Hamas' efforts to convince Iran and Hezbollah to join the attack.
At the time, Hamas believed that the internal disagreements in Israel offered a good opportunity for an attack.
In the summer of 2023, Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas operative, met a senior member of the IRGC's Quds force, Saeed Izadi, in Lebanon. Al-Hayya requested from Izadi that Iran blow up sensitive sites in Israel at the start of the attack.
Izadi told al-Hayya that Iran and Hezbollah support the attack in principle, but need additional time to prepare for it.
Just a few months before the massacre, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told secretary generals of the Palestinian organizations who met in Egypt that, "We are at an exceptional point in the conflict with the enemy that obligates us to think together and to make exceptional decisions surrounding the question of the fight against this policy."
"We are at a window of opportunity that we must take advantage of since the occupation is suffering from an unprecedented internal conflict, the tension in its foreign relations, and its lack of ability to break our nation's will and escalating fight."
"We have a great responsibility and one way, which is the advancement of this conflict and the heroic intifada, and the support of it so we can reach our goals and end the occupation, uproot the settlements, and restore our full sovereignty to the occupied West Bank as an initial step to restoring our sovereignty on the entire historic land of Palestine."