nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com

The Times reviewed the minutes of 10 meetings among Hamas’s top leaders. The records show the militant group avoided several escalations since 2021 to falsely imply it had been deterred — while seeking Iranian support for a major attack.

Minutes of Hamas’s secret meetings, seized by the Israeli military and obtained by The New York Times, provide a detailed record of the planning for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, as well as Mr. Sinwar’s determination to persuade Hamas’s allies, Iran and Hezbollah, to join the assault or at least commit to a broader fight with Israel if Hamas staged a surprise cross-border raid.

The documents, which represent a breakthrough in understanding Hamas, also show extensive efforts to deceive Israel about its intentions as the group laid the groundwork for a bold assault and a regional conflagration that Mr. Sinwar hoped would cause Israel to “collapse.”

The documents consist of minutes from 10 secret planning meetings of a small group of Hamas political and military leaders in the run-up to the attack, on Oct. 7, 2023. The minutes include 30 pages of previously undisclosed details about the way Hamas’s leadership works and the preparations that went into its attack.

MBFC
Archive

  • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
    59·
    1 month ago

    Last time there was “Hamas documents” leaked it turned out to be fake.

    https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-819230

    The NY Times had hired an ex Israeli intelligence officer to write the article about sexual assaults during the Hamas attacks on October 7 that turned out to be way below journalistic standards, leading to the journalists union protesting the NY Times threatening employees who called out that article to be deeply flawed.

    https://theintercept.com/2024/02/28/new-york-times-anat-schwartz-october-7/

    I am highly skeptical that these two actors, IDF and NY Times who have collaborated in the past to spread misinformation, are a reliable source on this, especially as the time is just perfect for justifying Israels planned attacks on Iran.

    • breakfastmtn@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      13·
      1 month ago

      From the JPost article:

      Two articles published in the last few days were part of the IDF investigation, one from Jewish Chronicle and one from the German tabloid newspaper Bild. Both have claimed to reveal internal and top secret documents of Hamas, supposedly straight from Yahya Sinwar’s computer.

      Not the NYT. Not sure how the Times gets painted with that brush for not publishing based on those documents. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, I guess.

      Your claim about the sexual violence article is also not true. The NYT spent a month re-reporting that story which didn’t result in a single correction. Their reporting is also supported by a UN investigation that concluded that there “are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence — including rape and gang-rape — occurred across multiple locations of Israel and the Gaza periphery during the attacks on 7 October 2023.” I don’t think you can accuse the UN of collaborating with the IDF.

      From this article:

      The Times assessed the documents’ authenticity by sharing some of their contents with members of and experts close to Hamas. Salah al-Din al-Awawdeh, a Hamas member and a former fighter in its military wing who is now an analyst based in Istanbul, said that he was familiar with some of the details described in the documents and that keeping organized notes was consistent with the group’s general practices. A Palestinian analyst with knowledge of Hamas’s inner workings, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive topics, also confirmed certain details as well as general structural operations of Hamas that aligned with the documents.

      The Israeli military, in a separate internal report obtained by The Times, concluded the documents were real and represented another failure by intelligence officials to prevent the Oct. 7 attack. The Times also researched details mentioned in the meeting records to check that they corresponded with actual events.

      • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
        14·
        1 month ago

        The jpost article showed Israeli officials forging and then leaking fake Hamas documents to spread misinformation. We have seen many such propaganda efforts, like the bullshit animation of the alleged tunnel system, or the video claiming a simple calender to be some terrorist schedule.

        You misinterpret what the NY Times article claimes and what the UN investigation concluded. The NY Times article claimed widespread sexual violence and the sexual violence being an integral part of the strategy of Hamas for 07. October. The UN report concluded that there is evidence of sexual violence, but that it is not possible to determine it to be part of a deliberate strategy.

        This is a very important distinction to make. Especially as Israel used this claim as “proof” how barbaric Palestinians would ne to justify their countless massacres and war crimes. There is no doubt that sexual violence did occur, but the NY Times and their intelligence asset deliberately blew it way out of proportion and made ridiculous claims off on it, in order to keep the support for Israels onslaught on Gaza high.

        When i opened the article it stopped after “prelude to war”. I didnt see the rest to be cut off.

        With the description of some of the details being confirmed as well as the general structure, that still has limited use, without knowing ehich details. If the meetings and resulting letters with Hezbollah/Iran are confirmed, that is strong evidence. If it is just confirmation that they do keep notes and meet regularly, that is something everyone should know.

        As for the IDF report “obtained” by the NYT we are back to square one. The IDF deliberately makes forged leaks to media outlets to spread misinformation. This is also th be expected from any serious army, but with this particular army we have a lot of recent evidence of the practice.