Hamas Documents Show Pre-October 7 Push to Derail Saudi-Israel Normalization

Documents captured in Gaza and reviewed by the Amit Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Research, then aired Sunday by Kan 11 journalists Elior Levy and Roi Kais, show that Hamas leadership was deeply focused on stopping normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia before the October 7 massacre. The records indicate the group believed a Saudi deal would trigger similar agreements across the Arab world and push the Palestinian issue to the margins.

At a Hamas leadership meeting in Gaza in February 2022, some 20 months before the attack, the organization decided to create a dedicated office to manage what it called the struggle against normalization. The minutes say the office would shape the vision, doctrine, policy and work plan, while coordinating across all of the movement’s tools. The documents also show Hamas concluded Gaza alone could not carry the effort, and recommended stoking escalation in the West Bank and Jerusalem to disrupt the Saudi track.

One document states that unrest on the ground is one of the most important tools for slowing normalization, and cites the Second Intifada as the main factor that derailed an earlier normalization project tied to the Arab Peace Initiative. Hamas worked to encourage escalation in those arenas and succeeded in some places, but by 2023 its leaders were increasingly aware their efforts were not producing the desired result.

Two weeks before October 7, Yahya Sinwar chaired a decisive meeting on the issue and presented a paper titled, “Dealing with the normalization process between Saudi Arabia and Israel.” He called normalization “entirely a malignant thing,” described Saudi Arabia’s role as especially significant, and attacked Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as seeking regional leadership through Israel and the Americans. Sinwar said Hamas could “disrupt the plans,” “strike the Zionist enemy,” and send a message to normalization partners, even if it could not stop the process entirely. On October 2, 2023, in what was the last Hamas meeting before the attack, Sinwar concluded that the Saudi normalization drive risked “regional deterioration” and argued that only an “extraordinary action” by Hamas and the “axis of resistance” could force a strategic shift. Five days later, at 06:29, Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israel, and Saudi-Israeli normalization was effectively frozen.