The American newspaper "The Washington Post" revealed the details of the Hamas attack on October 7, considering, according to Western and Middle Eastern intelligence sources, that its aim was "to ignite a major regional war in the Middle East."

The newspaper considered that four weeks after the Hamas attack, the reassembled parts began to reveal the features of the movement’s broader plan, a plan that analysts say was not only aimed at killing and capturing Israelis, but rather at “igniting a massive fire that would sweep region and lead to a broader conflict.”

This evidence, described by more than 10 current and former intelligence and security officials from four Western and Middle Eastern countries, reveals the intent of Hamas planners to “strike a strike of historic proportions, in the hope that their actions will lead to an overwhelming Israeli response.”

The newspaper quoted a number of officials who had not previously spoken about the matter, saying that intelligence information about the movement’s motives “has become stronger in recent days, and the results also shed new light on the tactics and methods used by Hamas to deceive the Israeli intelligence establishment that prides itself on its performance and thwart the initial efforts made by the  "Israel army to stop the attack."

Officials say the fighters "were carrying enough food, ammunition and equipment to last several days, and were instructed to continue pushing into Israel if the first wave of attacks were successful, potentially hitting larger Israeli cities."

The newspaper reported that one of the units “was carrying reconnaissance information and maps indicating an intention to continue the attack to the West Bank border,” according to two senior intelligence officials in the Middle East and a former American official with detailed knowledge of the evidence. “Hamas has also increased its communication with West Bank activists in recent months, although the movement says it did not inform its allies in the West Bank of its plans in advance.”

“If that had happened, it would have been a major propaganda victory, but a symbolic strike not only against Israel, but also against the Palestinian Authority,” said the former US official who was briefed on the matter.

The former official, like many others interviewed, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary intelligence findings.

The newspaper added, “Hamas itself was surprised by the sweeping nature of the incursion, according to the group’s public statements and assessments shared privately with journalists. But the movement’s leaders expected their attack to result in more than just hostages,” current and former intelligence officials said.

Analysts said, "Hamas meticulously planned and prepared for a massacre of Israeli civilians on a scale that would likely prompt the Israeli government to send forces into Gaza. In fact, Hamas leaders have publicly expressed their willingness to accept heavy casualties, which are likely to include the death of many civilians in Gaza who live "Under its rule."

“They had a very clear vision about what would happen to Gaza the next day,” said a senior Israeli military official familiar with sensitive intelligence, including interrogations with Hamas fighters and intercepted communications, adding: “They wanted to buy their place in history — a place in history.” Jihad – at the cost of the lives of many people in Gaza.”

Secret planning and high-level deception

“Planning for the historic attack against Israel has been underway for more than a year, and Hamas officials have done their best to conceal preparations, even as senior leaders have dropped occasional hints about their intentions,” intelligence officials say.

Western and Middle Eastern intelligence officials added that "Hamas militants, during their training, carefully reviewed population centers and military bases to create a matrix of potential targets."

Hamas deployed inexpensive reconnaissance drones to generate maps of Israeli cities and military installations within a few miles of the separation wall system that Israel built to isolate Gaza at a cost of $1 billion and to obtain detailed intelligence.

Intelligence officials said they obtained "additional information from day laborers in Gaza, who were allowed to enter Israel to work." They also "monitored Israeli websites, studying real estate photos and social media posts depicting life inside kibbutzim and plans of buildings and homes."

“Intelligence gathering was not particularly complex, but it was systematic,” said Ali Soufan, a former FBI counterterrorism official and founder of The Soufan Group, a private security consulting firm in New York that works closely with Middle Eastern governments.

Soufan added, “If you are in prison, you have to study the prison security system, and this is what Hamas has been doing for 16 years.” He continued, “Their intelligence information on the ground was much better than anything the Iranians could provide them.”

The most important details appear to have been withheld from Hamas's political leadership and its main backers, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group, as officials from both organizations have publicly acknowledged.

Plant the seeds

The newspaper believes, “While the plot was progressing secretly, others in the Hamas leadership were busy planting the seeds of a highly sophisticated deception operation.”

It was a message the Israelis wanted to hear: “Hamas does not want more wars,” according to former head of Palestinian affairs at Aman, Michael Milstein.

Milstein, who met Sinwar briefly years ago, said, “October 7 bears a fundamental feature of Sinwar’s previous operations: knowing the basic awareness of the Israeli public.” In order to support this perception of moderation, clashes between Hamas and Israel stopped after that.

For many in Israel, it was further evidence that Hamas had changed and was no longer seeking a bloody conflict, with some reports suggesting that Hamas officials “passed intelligence about PIJ to the Israelis to reinforce the impression that they were cooperating.”

The relative calm on Israel's southwestern border was welcome, as Israeli officials were preoccupied with problems elsewhere, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government threatened by historic internal unrest, including unprecedented waves of demonstrations against judicial reform proposed by his far-right government. .

The Israeli army saw a much greater security threat from Hezbollah in the north and from violent Palestinian groups engaged in escalating clashes with Israeli soldiers and armed settlers in the West Bank.

Israeli concerns about the West Bank also increased over the summer with the discovery of new attempts by outside groups to arm Palestinians and incite them to violence.

Surprise

The attempts at deception and diversion eventually succeeded, and in Gaza, less than fifty miles from the West Bank, the arming and training of Hamas' assault squads were largely ignored.

Surveillance footage and other data continued to flow to Israeli eavesdropping centers, but the most crucial communication occurred through channels that the Israelis could not access or failed to understand, current and former officials said.

Eran Etzion, former deputy head of the Israeli National Security Council, said: “They were deceiving Israel at the strategic level, using portable radios, underground wire networks in tunnels and other communications that we could not listen to, while they were using the codes of the so-called open networks, which they were using.” They know we're listening."

"They were creating an alternative reality," he added.

Yadlin, the former head of Defense Intelligence, said that Israel "ultimately allowed the building of a Palestinian army by Hamas and kept telling itself that Hamas could be deterred."

“Israel has been deceived,” Yadlin said, while a Hamas spokesman said the movement’s firm position on regaining all former Palestinian lands should have made its intentions clear. Hamas acted out of the conviction that “we are being erased – our cause is being erased.”

Along with maps and other documents, many of the dead fighters were equipped with handcuffs and gas canisters, as well as instructions to set fire to homes. Witnesses and paramedics who arrived at the scene said the tactic was aimed at driving residents out of their safe rooms with smoke. Most worrying for some, Analysts are preparing for an expanded attack.

“They have planned a second phase, including major Israeli cities and military bases,” said a senior Israeli official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified intelligence.

It is unclear whether the attackers had realistic expectations of advancing as far as the West Bank, and Hamas officials said they were hoping to obtain hostages to exchange for prisoners held in Israel and did not expect nearly all of the October 7 assault teams to reach their initial objectives.

Annahar Alaraby