‘Insane’ Hamas leaders ‘planned to invade Israel and kill civilians to force others to live in a Palestinian state – with the terror group’s leaders each given their own region to rule’

Hamas commanders planned to invade a wider area of ​​Israel and divide it among the group’s leaders, killing settlers and integrating others into a Palestinian state, a former West Bank official said.

A former senior official of Fatah, a political organization of Arab Palestinians, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Hamas had long planned to “overthrow Israel,” even going so far as to divide the territory into cantons.

“One day a well-known Hamas figure calls and tells me with pride and joy that they are preparing a complete list of committee heads for the cantons that will be created in Palestine,” Iyad (not his real name) told the newspaper.

Iyad claimed that he did not take the talks on “the last promise” seriously until 2021, when he realized that “the entire leadership had been captured by the (Hamas leader, Yahya) Sinwar group’s crazy idea of ​​an all-out battle ‘, said Iyad. Israeli journalist Shlomi Eldar.

“They believed so strongly in the idea that Allah was with them and that they would overthrow Israel that they began to divide Israel into cantons the day after the conquest,” he said, calling Sinwar a “crazy fanatic.” ‘.

Iyad told the newspaper that after the planned invasion, he was offered the chairmanship of the Zarnuqa Commission, “where my family lived before 1948.”

He claimed to have rejected the offer to “lead the group that would be responsible for the rehabilitation of the Ramle-Rehovot area” now in the region “on the day after the fulfillment of ‘the last promise’.”

“You have gone crazy,” Iyad told the Hamas official and asked them not to contact him again.

That year, Sinwar sent a written message speech to the Hamas-sponsored ‘The Promise of the Hereafter Conference’, attended by other Palestinian groups, examining preparations for the future governance of a broader Palestinian state after Israel ‘disappears’.

The Hamas leader said at the time that the conquest of the “state of the Zionists” was “now closer than ever before,” and reiterated efforts to establish Hamas’ “strategic vision” and plans for “what will come next.” to bring.

Among the reported plans were an independence document that would be “a direct continuation of the Pact of ‘Umar Bin Al-Khattab’ concerning the surrender of Byzantine Jerusalem to the Muslim conquerors, which apparently took place in 638,” a new currency and a call for a guide to resettling refugees who want to return.

The conference also recommended rules for dealing with the Jewish population, including defining which would be killed, which would be persecuted, and which would be allowed to leave or stay and be integrated into a new state, per US research institute. MEMRI.

The conference also discussed the risk of a brain drain and how to ensure that “skilled Jews and experts in medicine, engineering, technology and civil and military industries” stay – by preventing them from leaving.

Sinwar said at the time that Hamas sponsored this conference because it is in line with our assessment that victory is near and that “the complete liberation of Palestine from the sea to the river” is “at the core of Hamas’s strategic vision.”

Hamas, founded in 1987 by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, has controlled the Gaza Strip since winning the 2006 parliamentary elections and toppling rival Fatah party in a power struggle during the bloody Battle of Gaza in 2007.

Fatah, the largest faction of the multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), retained control of the Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank through its president and oversees a number of Palestinian refugee camps.

Since the Battle of Gaza, Hamas has made a number of reconciliation attempts with Fatah, without a lasting agreement.

Hamas usurped caretaker authorities in Gaza in 2006 in a campaign against corruption, promising to reclaim land lost since Israel’s founding in 1948. no elections held From that moment on.

They also received support in the form of promises to resettle Palestinians driven from their land and property by a series of major massacres during the 1948 war, in which some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes. 15,000 were killed in mass atrocities.

While Fatah, a secular organization that wants to build a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, has carried out thousands of guerrilla attacks on Israel, the group has stepped up its efforts in recent years to negotiate with Israel. to rule out armed resistance.

However, this remains controversial as Israel has taken full control of the Palestinian economy and security issues in more than 60 percent of the West Bank.

Hamas, an Islamist organization that does not recognize Israel but ostensibly accepts a Palestinian state on its 1967 borders, continues to sow division over its continued use of armed resistance in attempts to reclaim what it claims is Palestinian land.

The group staged its first suicide bombing in 1993, destroying a West Bank bus carrying Israeli soldiers, killing the attacker and a Palestinian who worked nearby.

Hamas steadily refined its techniques and engaged in retaliatory attacks on Israel during periods of conflict.

The perceived resistance gained the support of the Palestinians in Gaza group, although Fatah would remain more popular into the 21st century.

a poll of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza late last year, after the October 7 attack, noted a rise in support for Hamas despite the destruction of the Gaza Strip.

The survey found that 63 percent also believed that ‘armed struggle’ is the most effective strategy for achieving independence – an increase of ten percent in three months.

Only 13 percent supported nonviolent protest and 20 percent favored negotiations with Israel. Support for Hamas peaks in times of conflict and falls in times of peace, pollsters say.

Nearly 90 percent also believed that Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, head of the PA and chairman of the PLO, should resign.

The story surrounding the war is somewhat complicated by access to information.

While nearly 80 percent of Palestinians are against killing Israeli civilians and taking hostages, 85 percent of Palestinians are against killing Israeli civilians and taking hostages. said they have not seen images of Hamas’s atrocities against civilians on October 7.