The Palestinian Hamas wanted to attack Israel in the fall of 2022, but postponed its plans because it wanted to attract the support of Iran and the Shiite movement Hezbollah. This was reported by the newspaper The New York Times, referring to minutes of meetings of the leadership of Hamas, captured by the Israeli military.
According to the publication, the documents were discovered in January at the movement's underground command center in Khan Younis and contain minutes of 10 meetings of the Hamas leadership, which show, among other things, that the movement has deliberately avoided major confrontations with Israel since 2021 in order to lull the Israeli authorities' vigilance and subsequently take advantage of the surprise effect.
In addition, the newspaper claimed, Hamas asked Iranian authorities, as well as Hezbollah, to strike Israeli targets during the attack. The New York Times reports that Iranian authorities and Hezbollah have supported the Hamas plan in principle, but have asked for more time to prepare.
Hamas' decision to attack, the publication says, was influenced by the desire to prevent the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.