Skyscrapers in Tel Aviv are targeted in a 9/11-style attack

Hamas leaders had plans for large-scale attacks on Israel, including a 9/11-style attack on skyscrapers in Tel Aviv, even before they launched their deadly raid on Israeli border communities on October 7 last year, The Washington Post reported on Saturday . citing digital files and paper records recovered from Hamas command centers by IDF forces in Gaza.

According to the Washington Post report, the documents outline a comprehensive attack strategy that includes the use of trains, boats and even chariots. However, terrorism experts noted that many of these plans were not practical.

The 59-page trove of documents also describes a 2021 request from Hamas to Iran for $500 million in funding as well as the training of 12,000 additional Hamas operatives.

Documents from 2021 show that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar reached out to senior Iranian officials, including Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, requesting additional financial and military support.

In a letter, Sinwar claimed that Hamas, with Iran’s support, could achieve the complete destruction of Israel within two years. “We promise you that we will not waste a minute or a cent unless it means achieving this sacred goal,” Sinwar wrote in June 2021.

Months before the October 2023 attack, Hamas had been considering an even more comprehensive attack plan. A 36-page presentation discovered on November 10 at a Hamas outpost in northern Gaza outlined possible scenarios for a multi-front attack on Israel, targeting military bases and civilian locations such as shopping malls.

The Arabic document, titled “Strategy for Creating an Appropriate Plan for the Liberation of Palestine,” contains dozens of maps, photos and diagrams showing Hamas movements and follow-up attack strategies across Israel.

According to the presentation, Hamas’ attack plans were based on a massive database of over 17,000 images, including satellite photos and drone footage of Israeli cities. The database also included images from social media covering key military and civilian locations such as Israeli Air Force bases, as well as diagrams of civilian flight routes to Ben Gurion Airport.

The presentation outlined three attack scenarios using tactics to deceive Israel’s defenses. Some of the planned operations were “low-tech” methods, similar to the methods used in the October 7 attacks, while others were far more ambitious.

One such goal was to demolish prominent skyscrapers in Tel Aviv, including the 68-story Moshe Aviv Tower in Ramat Gan and the Azrieli Towers complex, which consists of three skyscrapers, a large shopping center, a train station and a cinema.

“If this tower is destroyed in one way or another, there will be an unprecedented crisis for the enemy, similar to the crisis of the World Trade Center towers in New York,” the document said, although Hamas did not yet provide a method had developed to achieve this. “We are working on finding a mechanism to destroy the tower.”

A more practical target, according to the documents, was the Israeli railway system. Hamas outlined various scenarios for using trains to transport fighters and powerful explosives. “The railway line is intended for the transport of fuel, which represents a vulnerability in the event of a train explosion after traveling within one of the cities (a moving bomb),” the document said.

Other documents showed that Hamas planned to convert vehicles to run on rails and convert fishing vessels into fast attack boats that could carry warplanes and explosives to infiltrate Israeli ports. Regarding the boat bombing plan, the documents state that Hamas “found a working mechanism.”

One of the most unconventional proposals laid out in the documents involved the use of horse-drawn carts, reminiscent of ancient times, as a “modern” means of transporting terrorists and weapons.

The presentation included photos and descriptions of a chariot that could carry three people, easily negotiate rough terrain, and ride more quietly than a motorcycle while emitting less heat.

Meanwhile, a New York Times report revealed minutes of 10 meetings Sinwar held with the Hamas high command. The meeting summaries, found on a computer in Khan Younis and obtained by the Times, provided new insight into Hamas’s preparations for the Oct. 7 attack, codenamed “The Big Project.”

The report also highlighted Hamas’ strategy of deception, which emphasized maintaining silence even during Ramadan and instructing members not to take part in fighting alongside the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The documents also revealed that Hamas wanted to launch its attack before Israel had completed development of its laser weapons and called on Iran to target sensitive locations with rocket strikes in the first hour of the attack.

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