NEWSRAEL: Who betrayed who? Was it Iran or Hezbollah that left Hamas to its fate, or was it the fear from the IDF that kept Hezbollah from joining in on 10/7?
Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar secured a commitment from Hezbollah before the October 7 terrorist attack to launch a joint assault on Israel, according to documents the IDF recently obtained during its ground operations in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis.
The new findings show that Sinwar not only hoped for this scenario but counted on it, even claiming to have received Hezbollah's commitment to its participation.
One document revealed Sinwar's communication with his people, saying, "We received a commitment that the axis will participate in the large liberation project due to the nature of the relationship we are working on."
Additional documents reaffirm the commitment he received, stating that the operation in southern Israel will trigger concomitant action from the north, on which Hezbollah trained under the banner of "occupying the Galilee."
Ultimately, the mullahs in Tehran and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut let Sinwar down.
Hezbollah's delay allowed IDF forces, primarily reservists, who were mobilized from their homes, to arrive at their positions and hold the line for that tense day.
The gap between Sinwar's hopes as shown in the document and what happened in practice raises the question, why did Hezbollah refrain from an action that would have presented Israel with a tougher challenge while still handling Hamas' surprise attack?
Apart from Hamas' choice of timing, one explanation would be caution on Hezbollah's part to assess the operation's success, and by the time Nasrallah understood its dimensions, the IDF had organized in the north in a way that prevented effective implementation of the plan to occupy Galilee settlements.
According to an Israeli source, the reason for avoiding a full-scale war in the north is different. According to him, Hezbollah's basic desire was to enter immediately, but Iran held the organization back because it knew Israel would react forcefully.
Essentially, Hezbollah's dangerous capabilities were not built by Tehran at a cost of a billion dollars a year to serve as a force multiplier for Hamas but rather as a sharp response to a potential Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities.
Source: Ynet (Israel)