Hamas plotted the Al-Aqsa Flood operation in great secrecy. Although Israeli military intelligence caught wind of extensive and mysterious training in Gaza months earlier, the final preparations for the Oct. 7 attacks were known only among Hamas’ top leadership. A rare window into the decision-making process, however, was opened during a bizarre interview on Oct. 26 on the Egyptian satellite TV channel Sada El Balad.
Mustapha Bakri, an Egyptian member of Parliament and prominent media personality, interviewed the former head of Hamas in Gaza and now senior leader of its Qatar exile group, Khaled Mashal, about the surprise attack on Israel three weeks prior. As reported later that day by the Egyptian newspaper Shorouk News, Mashal told Bakri that the operation was necessary to disrupt Israel’s scheme “to import five red cows from the United States of America to…
