Hamas launched Oct 7 massacre to prevent Israel-Saudi Arabia normalization, documents show

The leaders of Hamas in Gaza wanted to prevent normalization talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia from producing an agreement whereby the Islamic kingdom would join the Abraham Accords, a new report from the Wall Street Journal says. 

The Journal claims to have seen documents from the Hamas terror organization, depicting minutes of an Oct. 2, 2023 meeting of the Hamas political bureau in Gaza, where the normalization efforts were discussed, and during which the former Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar warned that an “extraordinary act” was required to prevent a normalization deal from occurring. 

The documents were recovered by the IDF during operations in Gaza over the past year and a half. 

JUST IN: Per WSJ, IDF says it found minutes from a Oct 2, 2023 meeting of Hamas leadership where Yahya Sinwar says 'extraordinary act' needed to confront Israeli-Saudi normalization pic.twitter.com/9Afa6ml4Pu

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In the meeting minutes, Sinwar is cited as saying, “There is no doubt that the Saudi-Zionist normalization agreement is progressing significantly.” 

He also warned that the deal would “open the door for the majority of Arab and Islamic countries to follow the same path.” 

Afraid that this would constitute a major setback for Hamas and cause a lack of support for the Palestinian cause, Sinwar argued that the major attack which Hamas had been planning in cooperation with Hezbollah and Iran needed to be advanced immediately “to bring about a major move or a strategic shift in the paths and balances of the region with regard to the Palestinian cause.” 

According to the documents obtained by the IDF, Sinwar believed that a successful surprise attack by Hamas would lead to Hezbollah, and perhaps other Iranian proxies, joining the effort. 

The Wall Street Journal story echoes a similar report by the New York Times from October 2024, which stated that Hamas repeatedly tried to persuade Hezbollah and Iran to join its attack on Israel. According to that report, Hamas ultimately launched the assault before coordinating a date with its allies due to two concerns: first, fear that Israel was about to deploy its Iron Beam laser air defense system, which would significantly enhance the effectiveness of the Iron Dome; and second, growing alarm over the progress of Israel-Saudi normalization talks.

Despite clear hawkish rhetoric by both Hezbollah and Iran, neither was interested in in a direct war with Israel. 

Other documents found by the IDF support the claim that Hamas wanted to derail the normalization effort being overseen by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden at that time. 

The Journal stated that it had also seen an internal Hamas briefing from August 2022, which directly spoke of the threat to “the Palestinian cause,” while speaking of the need to coordinate its response with Hezbollah, Iran, and the other Palestinian “resistance” movements. 

“It has become the duty of the movement to reposition itself to … preserve the survival of the Palestinian cause in the face of the broad wave of normalization by Arab countries, which aims primarily to liquidate the Palestinian cause.”  

The move appears to have worked, with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman recently indicating that the current war in Gaza has created a significant obstacle to normalization between his country and Israel. 

The Crown Prince has told foreign diplomats that he will only be able to proceed with normalization after the end of the war, and with a diplomatic framework in place that would lead to a Palestinian state. 

While the Israeli public is increasingly united in favor of normalization with Saudi Arabia, but against the idea of a Palestinian state, a recent report by news outlet Israel Hayom claims that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States are working on a proposal to end the war in Gaza which is based on a modified version of the Witkoff proposal which Israel already accepted. 

That proposal would see Israel withdraw from the Gaza Strip, while Hamas would be required to disarm, with high-level officials leaving the Strip. It would also call for a cooperation of Gulf states, with U.S. support, to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza and the reformation of the political situation in the enclave. 

The proposal appears to be an attempt by Saudi Arabia and its Gulf state partners to restore the normalization process.