🚨Hamas Sought 10,000-Fighter Army in Lebanon Before October 7
Hamas sought to turn its presence in Lebanon into a standing army of up to 10,000 trained fighters before the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, according to newly publicized internal documents recovered by Israeli troops in Gaza.
The documents, detailed Sunday by Israel Hayom based on analysis by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, include minutes from an August 2023 Hamas Shura Council meeting in Gaza, less than two months before the attack.
They show senior Hamas leaders frustrated with the pace of the military buildup in Lebanon and what they viewed as preferential treatment by Hezbollah toward Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Then-Gaza City brigade commander Izz al-Din al-Haddad said Hamas had only about 1,000 recruits training in Lebanon, compared with more than 1,500 Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters trained with Hezbollah’s support. He warned Hamas needed to close the gap to remain the dominant Palestinian armed group.
“We want to be ready in the Lebanon arena,” al-Haddad said, according to the minutes.
Yahya Sinwar, then Hamas’s Gaza leader and the principal architect of October 7, was present. He said about 1,000 Hamas terrorists were training at camps in Lebanon linked to Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but said the long-term goal was much larger.
“The aspiration is 10,000 fighters who will be trained and become an army,” Sinwar said, according to the minutes.
Sinwar believed the expansion could happen quickly if Hamas resolved tensions with Hezbollah, partly stemming from strained relations between Hezbollah and Hamas official Khaled Mashaal. Mashaal’s opposition to Bashar Assad during the Syrian civil war had badly damaged Hamas’s ties with the Iran-led alliance.
The documents add to evidence that Hamas sought military capabilities beyond Gaza and prepared for a future multi-front war with Israel.
Earlier documents analyzed by the Meir Amit center showed Hamas and Iran discussing a major force in Lebanon, including a plan to initially deploy about 2,000 operatives and eventually expand to 10,000.
The IDF had publicly warned months before October 7 that Hamas was building a military branch in Lebanon. In an April 2023 assessment, it said Hamas decided after the 2014 Gaza war to establish a northern force and recruited Palestinians in Lebanon, particularly around Tyre.
That force was already operational before October 7. On April 6, 2023, 34 rockets were fired from Lebanon at Israel in the largest barrage since the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Israel blamed Hamas and struck Hamas targets in Gaza and Lebanon.
Hamas’s armed wing continued operating from Lebanon after October 7, claiming rocket attacks on northern Israel during the early days of the war and in subsequent months, including an April 2024 attack on an Israeli military position.
The documents also reflect growing coordination among Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. Earlier Hamas papers showed that a joint intelligence operations room involving the three groups was established in Beirut during the May 2021 Gaza conflict. Other documents described meetings between senior Hamas officials, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and senior Iranian commander Saeed Izadi about expanding the conflict with Israel.
Sinwar later wrote to Nasrallah about possible scenarios for a future attack, including a broader assault involving additional fronts. Captured correspondence showed Hamas repeatedly seeking assurances that Hezbollah and Iran would join a major confrontation.
Other Gaza documents pointed to plans far larger than the October 7 attack itself. The Washington Post reported in 2024 that seized records included plans for attacks from multiple directions and efforts to bring allied forces into a simultaneous assault. Hamas also sought Iranian financing and training for thousands of additional fighters, although some proposals may never have progressed beyond planning.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel from Lebanon on October 8, opening the northern front, while Hamas cells in Lebanon also carried out attacks. However, the massive force envisioned in the prewar documents never materialized.
According to the captured minutes, Sinwar’s goal was ultimately to build an army in Lebanon as part of a broader strategy to confront Israel simultaneously from Gaza and the north rather than on a single front.
