Hamas militants had prepared for a 'second phase' of terrorist attacks in Israel, report says

• Hamas aimed to provoke a wider war with the October 7 terrorist attacks, a report said.
• Analysts told The Washington Post the militant group planned even more extensive strikes.

Hamas militants had prepared for a "second phase" of terrorist attacks in Israel in the hope of provoking a wider conflict in the Middle East, The Washington Post reported.

The Post, citing more than a dozen current and former intelligence and security officials from four Western and Middle Eastern countries, said militants had carried enough provisions and ammunition to last them several days.

Some also carried documents that included details of how to attack deeper insider Israel, according to the report. Hamas militants wanted to reach into major Israeli cities and had plans for an incursion into the West Bank.

On October 7, Hamas terrorist killed more than 1,200 people and abducted 240 more, Israeli authorities said. Israel launched waves of attacks on Gaza in the weeks following the attacks, which the Hamas-run Gaza health authorities said killed at least 11,000.

The militant group, according to public statements by Hamas officials and assessments by analysts and intelligence officials cited by The Post, knew that the scale of the slaughter on October 7 would provoke Israeli incursions into Gaza.

However, it believed the attacks were justified if they derailed talks to normalize relations between Israel and Arab nations and provoked a new wave of anti-Israeli resistance.

"They were very clear-eyed as to what would happen to Gaza on the day after," a senior Israeli military official involved in investigations of the October 7 massacre told The Post. "They wanted to buy their place in history — a place in the history of jihad — at the expense of the lives of many people in Gaza."

Israel in the wake of the attacks has clashed with Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, across its northern border, and there has been renewed violence in the West Bank.

The US has sent two carrier strike groups to the region to deter aggression by Iran or its allies.