Former PA Official Vows to Reveal Hamas-Israel Secret Talks Before Oct. 7

Former senior Palestinian Authority official Sufian Abu Zeida announced he will soon reveal details of secret, year-and-a-half-long contacts between Israel and Hamas that preceded the October 7th attacks. These discussions, he stated in a Facebook video, aimed to achieve humanitarian agreements and a prisoner exchange deal.

Abu Zeida plans to disclose a direct message from Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, which Sinwar allegedly asked him to deliver to Israel shortly before the attack. While the exact content of this message remains undisclosed, Abu Zeida indicated it could be a specific warning or signal of escalation.

His announcement follows a Channel 12 investigation reporting that Sinwar had sent a secret message to Israeli leadership weeks before October 7th, warning of potential "outbreaks in Israeli prisons and around the issue of captives." This information was highly classified, shared only with a select group of political and security officials, including Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant, and led to urgent meetings among IDF, Shin Bet, and Mossad leaders.

However, the prevailing intelligence assessment at the time mistakenly concluded Sinwar was not signaling a military attack but was likely focused on the potential release of Israeli-Russian researcher Elizaveta Tsourkova, held captive in Iraq. This misinterpretation meant that some high-ranking IDF and military intelligence officers, not privy to the classified message, could not correlate it with other alarming intelligence signals.

Abu Zeida's impending revelations also connect to a Haaretz investigation that detailed information received by the Shin Bet in mid-September 2023 from an informant codenamed "Coal Eyes." Following this intelligence, the Shin Bet chief reportedly recommended preemptive strikes on Gaza or significantly bolstering southern defenses, but no operational decisions were made at a subsequent meeting.

Abu Zeida, 66, a former Minister for Detainees Affairs, is known in Israel for his fluency in Hebrew and frequent media appearances. His upcoming testimony is expected to shed light on how messages from Gaza were formulated, perceived, and ultimately disregarded by Israeli leadership prior to the October 7th events.