Iran has denied a Saturday report from The New York Times about “secret documents” linking the country to Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel last October.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel and took some 250 hostage. Almost 100 hostages remain in captivity, less than 70 of whom are believed to be alive. Israel subsequently launched its military operation in Gaza, which has killed roughly 42,000 Palestinians so far, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Local health officials don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants but say many of those killed were women and children.
Just after the first anniversary of the Palestinian militant attack, the Times, in an article titled “Secret Documents Show Hamas Tried to Persuade Iran to Join Its Oct. 7 Attack,” revealed on Saturday what was in the minutes of several secret meetings Hamas held in the lead-up to October 7, which reportedly shows efforts by Hamas to persuade its allies, Iran and Hezbollah, to join in the attack. Iran provides funding, weapons and training to Hamas and Hezbollah, according to a 2021 terrorism report by the U.S. Department of State.
The Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is Tehran’s mission in New York at the United Nations, told Newsweek on Saturday: “While Doha-stationed Hamas officials have themselves stated that they, too, had no prior knowledge of the operation and that 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.”
Newsweek has reached out to Israel’s military via email for comment on Saturday during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.
According to the meeting minutes, which were seized by Israel’s military and obtained and verified by the Times, Hamas sent a top official to Lebanon in July 2023 to meet with a senior Iranian commander to request help with hitting sensitive sites at the beginning of the planned attack. The commander told Hamas that Iran and Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group, were supportive of the attack in principle but needed extra time to prepare.
There was also a planned meeting for Hamas to further discuss the attack with Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s former leader who Israel killed in a strike last month. The minutes did not clarify if the meeting actually happened.
According to the minutes, Hamas felt it had general support from its allies, but thought it might need to go through with the attack without their full involvement.
Meanwhile, tensions in the Middle East have been escalating—with fears of an all-out war between Israel, Iran, and Iran’s network of proxies known as the Axis of Resistance, which includes Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen—after Hezbollah’s electronic devices exploded last month in a coordinated attack that it claimed Israel was behind. Israel has not taken responsibility for the attack that killed dozens and injured thousands more.
On October 1, Iran fired a barrage of nearly 200 missiles at Israel with almost all of the strikes being intercepted. Iran said its attack was in retaliation for Israel targeting Hezbollah.
On Friday, the U.S. announced new sanctions on Iran’s “ghost fleet” of ships and companies connected to the country’s energy sector in response to the October 1 attack.
Hossein Beris/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images