Last week, the IDF publicized documents found in a captured tunnel beneath Gaza that record the transfer of $154 million from the Iranian government to Hamas. This discovery fills in the details of what has long been known to anyone paying attention: that the Palestinian terrorist group relies heavily on support from Tehran. But what is somewhat less clear is the role Iran had in the actual planning and orchestration of the October 7 attacks.

Kyle Orton provides a forensic breakdown of publicly available information about this question, arguing that the Islamic Republic’s involvement went far beyond providing funds and arms, and explaining why statements to the contrary from unnamed CIA sources should be taken with a grain of salt. Iran, writes Orton, has every reason to deny its involvement:

The whole purpose of Iran’s revolutionary imperialist model . . . is to provide “deniability” for its operations so that it does not directly pay the price for its adventurism. Why the West continues to agree to play by Iran’s rules is a separate issue, but suffice it to say the “official” statements from the “Axis of Resistance,” [i.e., Iran, Syria, and their allied terrorist groups], were always going to lead away from Iran’s responsibility for October 7.

The most damning piece of evidence regards the participation of Esmail Qaani, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responsible for directing Tehran’s various proxy forces. He met with a war room established in Beirut in 2021 to coordinate activities among Hizballah and various Palestinian terrorist groups:

The day after the October 7 pogrom the Wall Street Journal reported, citing “senior members of Hamas and Hizballah,” that the IRGC had worked intensively with Hamas in the final two months before the invasion of Israel to refine the plan, and gave the final “green light” for the assault at a meeting in Beirut on October 2.

The Journal documented that the Quds Force, [the IRGC’s expeditionary corps], frequently represented by Esmail Qaani personally, had gathered . . . the Hamas military chief Saleh al-Arouri, Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Ziyad al-Nakhala, and officials from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine for “biweekly” meetings in Lebanon, starting in August 2023, to discuss their roles in the October 7 atrocity, and how they would deal with the aftermath. . . .

The formation of the Joint Operations Chamber last summer, the planning meetings for the pogrom beginning in August 2023, the specialized combat training in Iran itself for hundreds of Palestinian terrorists in the weeks before October 7, the timing, the provision of weapons, the intelligence training to deceive Israel, the relentless flow of money, . . . show the direct, intricate control Iran had over every aspect at every stage of the preparation and execution of the atrocities on that awful Saturday morning.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.