According to internal documents, Hamas saw calls for reservists not to show up for duty in protest of judicial reform as sign the time was ripe for invasion.
Political turmoil inside Israel over the government’s judicial reform plan and calls by the plan’s critics to refuse to serve in the IDF played a major role in Hamas’ decision to launch its invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, according to a report citing internal documents from the group.
The report, penned by Jonathan D. Halevi, a senior researcher of the Middle East and radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, analyzed documents seized by IDF forces in Gaza from Hamas’ leadership since October 7.
Hamas began planning the invasion in 2014, Halevi wrote, and by September 2016 the group’s senior leadership in Qatar had given its approval for the attack plan, with the goal of “liberating all Palestinian territories by the year 2022.”