The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has uncovered a chilling, handwritten document attributed to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar within a Gaza tunnel, offering what Israeli intelligence suggests is the detailed blueprint and psychological warfare strategy for the October 7, 2023, cross-border attack.
The document, which dates back to August 24, 2022, outlines not only the military strategy for the infiltration but also explicit instructions to create deliberately shocking and terrifying imagery to provoke mass uprisings and inflict psychological damage on Israeli society.
The Blueprint for Psychological Terror
The core of the document focuses on generating extreme visual content to achieve specific psychological and political goals. Sinwar instructs commanders to deliberately cause terrifying effects, film them, and disseminate the footage rapidly to incite Palestinians and sow panic in Israel.
The text provides explicit instructions for the types of footage required:
"Commanders must be instructed to cause these effects deliberately, to film them and broadcast the footage as quickly as possible: soldiers' heads being stepped on, point-blank shootings, stabbing several people with knives, tanks exploding, soldiers kneeling with their hands on their heads, and the like."
The plan also calls for creating scenes of mass destruction and arson to maximize fear:
"Plan in advance events that will yield terrifying images, several burning car bombs exploding at an outpost or building and creating horrific destruction, heart-rending scenes, terrible fires. Five or ten such images will sow mortal fear in them. May Allah strike them unawares and cast terror into their hearts. Organize for two or three actions whose objective is to burn down an entire neighborhood or kibbutz, pour gasoline or diesel from a special tanker, set it alight and broadcast the images."
