Documents reveal Hamas wanted to torpedo Israel-Saudi Arabia deal

Top leaders of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched their Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel aiming to torpedo peace negotiations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, according to minutes of a high-level meeting in Gaza that Israel’s military said it discovered in a tunnel beneath the enclave.

Days before the attack that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel, Hamas chief and Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar allegedly told his men that an “extraordinary act” was needed to stop Israel and Saudi Arabia from reaching an agreement where the latter would formally recognize the Jewish state, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Sinwar, who was killed last year, feared that such a deal would undermine Hamas’ cause for the destruction of Israel and creation of a Palestinian state — with the terror chief ordering his men to immediately prepare for the attack they’ve been waiting on for two years, according to the documents from a Oct. 2, 2023, meeting and discovered in tunnel-riddled Gaza.

“There is no doubt that the Saudi-Zionist normalization agreement is progressing significantly,” Sinwar allegedly said at the time — and warning that the deal would “open the door for the majority of Arab and Islamic countries to follow the same path.”

Experts and diplomats have long said that if Riyadh enters normalization agreements with Israel, it would pave the wave for wider Israeli-Arab peace and undermine the influence of anti-Israel countries such as Iran, which supports Hamas.

Saudi officials had been continuing to push for a two-state solution as a condition for formally recognizing Israel as an ally nation — meaning the Palestinian territory would be recognized as an independent entity, as well — and mediators said both countries were closer than ever to reaching an agreement in 2023.

Sinwar allegedly believed that by plunging the region into war, Israel would face backlash from the Arab world, leaving Riyadh with no choice but to distance itself from the Jewish state.

Most of the masterminds behind the attack, including Sinwar, have also been killed, with the Israel Defense Forces’ last estimating that it had slain at least 20,000 terrorists as of March 2025. 

But just as Hamas’ top brass predicted, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman distanced himself from Israel after the start of the war, with Riyadh criticizing the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza from Israel’s retaliation.

While their terrorist actions have caused Saudi Arabia to distance itself from Israel, Hamas has been thoroughly routed, and is so low on cash that it can’t pay its fighters. While it will be a long road back to normalization, Saudi Arabia has signaled that they are willing to normalize relations with Israel as part of a deal to work with the US and combat Iran.

Hamas may have accomplished something they hoped would come from their October 7th terrorist attacks, but they have paid a price much greater than anything they might have accomplished.