People visit rows of empty chairs bearing photos of Israeli victims and hostages displayed during a memorial vigil in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on Oct. 7, 2025. The installation, featuring more than 1,000 chairs, was organized by the Jewish Student Union Germany to commemorate the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel. Stefan Frank/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
The Israel Defense Forces have published excerpts from a handwritten document by former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israel forces, outlining key directives for the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. The document, written in 2022, includes operational and psychological instructions designed to maximize both Palestinian mobilization and Israeli terror.
Sinwar wrote: “It is essential to ensure that images emerge which will provoke an outburst of ecstasy, madness, and eruption among our people [the Palestinians], especially in the West Bank, inside [Israel], in Jerusalem, and throughout our entire nation. This is to spur them to respond to the calls for uprising.
“At the same time, [the images] must unleash a surge of terror and fear among the enemy. It must be emphasized to the unit commanders that they are to deliberately cause these scenes, film them, and broadcast the images as quickly as possible: stepping on the heads of soldiers, point-blank shootings, the slaughter of several with knives, the blowing up of tanks, soldiers kneeling with hands on their heads, and so on.”
Sinwar instructed: “Events that will yield images of horror must be planned in advance—several car bombs that explode in a base or building, creating immense destruction, heartbreaking scenes, and terrible fire. Five or ten such images will sow deadly fear in them. Allah came upon them from where they did not expect and cast terror into their hearts. Prepare for two or three operations whose goal is to burn down an entire neighborhood or kibbutz—pour gasoline or diesel from a special tanker, set the place ablaze, and broadcast the images.”
He also outlined tactical details for the breach into Israel. According to the document, several points of entry were to be selected, and by the end of the first assault wave, “Bulldozers must advance to open the gates, clear obstacles, and level the roads.”
In the following stage, “These bulldozers shall remove barbed wire, barriers, sand embankments, positions, and so on—as much as possible.”
He added that within “10 to 15 minutes” of the attack’s onset, “It is essential to begin mobilizing all forces according to the pre-arranged plan and in as many locations as possible (each company can act in a different place), so that [the forces] will be available to reinforce, expand, or defend the attack as needed—or to control the overall situation.”
Sinwar added: “If we are not ready to fully exploit the opportunity, the enemy will succeed in regaining control of the chaos, launch a counterattack, or receive external assistance—and the situation will turn against us in the worst way. Therefore, it is essential to be prepared for the flow of forces, the development and expansion of the attack, and its reinforcement to the maximum within the first six to ten hours—to establish firm facts on the ground that will prevent any counteroffensive.”
Sinwar’s Elimination
On Oct. 17, 2024—one year after the Oct. 7 massacre, which left around 1,200 Israelis dead and 251 kidnapped to Gaza—the IDF announced that Sinwar had been killed.
According to the Israeli military, his elimination occurred after IDF forces identified three terrorists fleeing from house to house. The men split up after being fired upon, and Sinwar escaped alone into one of the buildings.
Troops scanned the structure with a drone. Sinwar, wounded in his hand and wearing a mask, threw a wooden plank at the drone in his final moments. Forces fired at the building and entered for a sweep, finding him with a vest, a pistol, and 40,000 shekels in cash.
“Sinwar was eliminated after a year of hiding among Gaza’s civilian population, moving between safe houses and underground tunnels,” the IDF statement read. “Dozens of operations carried out by the IDF and Shin Bet over the past year—and in recent weeks within the area where he was located—gradually narrowed his freedom of movement and led to his elimination.”
