A newly released investigative report from Al Jazeera, featured in the network’s documentary series *The Hidden is Greater*, has revealed previously undisclosed internal records from Hamas’ armed faction, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, outlining that the group’s 7 October 2023 assault plan included a formal provision to cancel the entire operation if Israel upheld prior bilateral understandings with Hamas. The findings, made public in a Friday broadcast, draw on meeting transcripts and internal documents compiled in the months leading up to the unprecedented cross-border attack.
Records of a 11 February 2023 strategy session, attended by then-Gaza Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and Qassam Brigades commander Mohammed Deif (both later killed by Israeli military forces in 2024), show the operation, codenamed “Project Fahd,” was slated to be fully scrapped if Israel halted all incursions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and ended alleged abuses of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prison facilities. The internal text framed the final decision to move forward with the offensive as a direct response to what Hamas described as escalating, unaddressed Israeli violations, noting that “the brutality at Al-Aqsa has reached unacceptable levels, and the same applies to the treatment of prisoners.” The document also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of completely reneging on all previously negotiated mutual agreements, adding that no meaningful political progress toward de-escalation had materialized.
The core stated operational goals of Project Fahd included dismantling the Israeli military’s Gaza Division, the unit tasked with securing the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, as well as seizing as many Israeli soldiers as possible to use for subsequent negotiation leverage. The cross-border assault ultimately left roughly 1,200 Israelis dead, with an additional 250 people taken hostage and transported into Gaza. Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza, widely condemned as a genocide by global human rights bodies, has killed at least 73,000 Palestinian residents over two years of continuous operations. A U.S.-mediated ceasefire brokered in early 2025 was designed to end the hostilities, lift Israel’s long-running blockade of Gaza, and facilitate the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the enclave, but Israeli forces have continued near-daily incursions, home demolitions, and territorial expansion that now confines the vast majority of Gaza’s remaining population to less than 50% of the strip’s total land area. More than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the ceasefire went into effect, while sweeping restrictions on humanitarian aid deliveries remain largely in place, leaving critical food, medical supplies, and shelter resources inaccessible to most displaced civilians. Independent news outlet Middle East Eye notes it has not been able to conduct separate verification of the authenticity of the newly released Hamas internal documents.
Beyond the attack plan details, the Al Jazeera investigation also unearthed a trove of never-before-seen archival footage, audio recordings, and personal documents chronicling Mohammed Deif’s early life and decades of clandestine leadership of the Qassam Brigades. The rare footage captures Deif participating in high-level military strategy sessions held in underground tunnels alongside other Hamas field commanders, nearly all of whom have since been killed in Israeli targeted strikes, as well as visits to hidden rocket production facilities and fortified military operation centers. Prior to the 7 October 2023 attack, no public photographs of Deif had ever been released, and very little public information existed about his physical condition after surviving seven separate Israeli assassination attempts over the course of his 22-year tenure leading the Qassam Brigades, which began in 2002. Under Deif’s leadership, the faction evolved from a small, loosely organized guerrilla network into a structured quasi-military force estimated to number roughly 30,000 active combatants before the 2023 war.