The Hamas terrorist group plotted the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel in part of keep Saudi Arabia from signing on to a peace deal with Israel and marginalizing the Palestinian cause, according to newly discovered intelligence.
The now-deceased Hamas terrorist leader Yahya Sinwar told his terrorists on Oct. 2, 2023, that they needed the "extraordinary act" to keep Saudi Arabia from normalizing relations with Israel, according to minutes documenting a Hamas meeting discovered in a cleared-out terrorist tunnel war-torn Gaza, The Wall Street Journal reported in an exclusive Sunday.
While the terrorist attack might have delayed Saudi Arabia's signing on to President Donald Trump's first administration's Abraham Accords with Israel, Trump said in his Middle East tour this week that peace in Gaza and normalized relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel are still expected to come.
"You'll do it in your own time," Trump told Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a speech this week.
The Israeli Defense Forces have not only killed Yahya Sinwar, but his replacement, his brother, Mohammed Sinwar was targeted in a strike Tuesday and might be dead now, too.
"There is no doubt that the Saudi-Zionist normalization agreement is progressing significantly," Yahya Sinwar told his terrorists, according to the minutes of a top-level meeting just five days before the terrorist attacks on southern Israel.
Ultimately, Saudi Arabia and Israel normalizing diplomatic relations would "open the door for the majority of Arab and Islamic countries to follow the same path," Yahya Sinwar feared, calling for the terrorists "to bring about a major move or a strategic shift in the paths and balances of the region with regard to the Palestinian cause."
The minutes also noted Hamas' then-leader expected support from Iranian terrorist proxies in the region after years and weeks of weapons and training support from Iran, according to the report.
Sources told the Journal that Iran met with Hamas and Hezbollah officials in Beirut on Oct. 2, 2023, and approved the attack.
Existing Hamas leadership declined to comment to the Journal on the authenticity of the document or its messaging, but Arab intelligence officials close to Hamas told the paper the minutes appear to be genuine.
Many of the Hamas terrorist leaders in place on Oct. 2, 2023, are now dead, the Journal reported.
Other documents found in the terrorist tunnels shed light on fears of Saudi Arabia's normalization with Israel would marginalize Hamas' hopes for a Palestinian state in Gaza.
"It has become the duty of the movement to reposition itself to," a document marked "secret" from August 2022 read, the Journal reported, "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."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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