Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel may have been slated to begin during Passover in April, the Israeli news outlet Maariv reported Sunday.
Iran purportedly postponed the attack, resulting in a change of plans, Maariv reported. The reason for the alleged postponement is not clear, but it may have been because Iran was then in the midst of negotiations with the United States, according to the outlet.
Hamas’s mass infiltration and massacre of Israelis on October 7 was originally intended to take place during last Passover’s Seder meal, Israeli journalist @BenCaspit reported on Sunday evening.#Hamas | #Israel | #Iran | Read more bleow:https://t.co/CEKYQAzAFy
— The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) November 5, 2023
The alleged postponement may have been related to negotiations over the $6 billion deal the U.S. reached with Iran in September in return for the release of Americans from Iranian prison, The Jerusalem Post reported. (RELATED: US Blocks Iran From Accessing $6 Billion Fund After Hamas Attack: REPORT)
The reported information appeared to come from the interrogation of Hamas terrorists who were captured by Israel during the group’s storming of southern Israel in October. “I’m also not sure that it reached the decision-makers or passed the credibility test. But it was played in the ears of POW investigators,” Israeli journalist Ben Caspit commented in Maariv’s report.
A Hamas spokesperson previously cited the Iran prisoner deal to Russia Today as being a motivating factor for Hamas to assume the U.S. would meet the terrorist group’s demands after its own capturing of American hostages. “The U.S. conducts prisoner swaps. Only recently, it did one with Iran. Why wouldn’t it conduct a prisoner swap with us?” spokesperson Ali Baraka said in mid-October.