Recovered Document From Slain Hamas Leader Directs Fighters To Set Fire To Israeli Villages: 'Burn, Burn'

A recovered document from a computer that belonged to Mohammed Sinwar, brother of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, contained instructions of what ended up being the October 7 attack against Israel.

The document, reviewed by The New York Times, were found in a computer located in an underground complex used by Mohammed Sinwar. The computer was not connected to a network and contained the six-page document.

Dated August 24, 2022, calls for fighters to target soldiers and civilian communities and to broadcast them as widely as possible to stoke fear among Israelis. The outlet noted that commanders issued similar orders on October 7, and footage of Hamas operatives killing civilians in Israeli communities have been widely shared ever since.

The document doesn't explicitly talk about kidnapping or killing civilians, but does instruct fighters to enter neighborhoods and set them on fire "with gasoline or diesel from a tanker."

"Two or three operations, in which an entire neighborhood, kibbutz, or something similar will be burned, must be prepared," reads a passage of the memo. "Burn, burn," then said a Hamas commander on October 7.

The outlet did note that Ibrahim Madhoun, a Palestinian analyst close to Hamas, cast doubt on the authenticity of the memo and didn't represent the culture of the group, considered terrorist by the U:S. The NYT said that several words and phrases in the memo appear in other Hamas documents previously reviewed by the outlet. Moreover, Sima Ankona, who has served as a document examination expert in the Israeli police, said the handwriting matches that of Yahya Sinwar, killed in October 2024 by Israel.