Documented Evidence of Jihadist Ideology
Three years after the October 7 attacks, investigators and journalists have pointed to specific documents and forensic evidence that they say reveal the ideological motivations behind the assault. Florit Shoihet, writing for The Spectator Australia on October 7, 2026, stated that the day marked a "jihad against Jews" and described Hamas as a "jihadist terrorist organization." She noted that the attack resulted in the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
Shoihet reported that Amos Harel, military correspondent for Haaretz, published the book "06:29: Anatomy of a Failure," which outlines evidence of jihadist elements behind the October 7 attack. Supporting this characterization, Shoihet reported that Major General Amir Baram, then deputy chief of staff of the IDF, found a handwritten letter from a Hamas platoon commander next to a terrorist’s body in Kibbutz Be’eri. The letter praised jihad and martyrdom and described the Jewish enemy as an incurable disease requiring treatment of decapitations and ripping out hearts and livers.
Forensic Details and Operational Orders
The Spectator Australia reported that terrorists livestreamed beheadings on October 7, with families still searching for heads of loved ones buried without them. Shoihet reported that Israel’s National Centre of Forensic Medicine presented evidence of a 12-year-old girl who was shot in the head and decapitated.
Further documentation has emerged regarding the planning of the assault. The Spectator Australia reported that Al Jazeera published an operational order for the October 7 attack in 2025, drafted by Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s military wing commander. Shoihet reported that the order drafted by Deif stated the aim was to humiliate and annihilate Jews at the hands of servants of Allah.
Additionally, The Spectator Australia reported that Bild published an operational order in 2024 from Izz ad-Din al-Haddad, then commander of Hamas’s Gaza Brigade. Shoihet reported that Al-Haddad’s order authorized the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood with faith in the Promise of the End Times and Allah’s decisive support for jihad.
Religious Prophecy in Conflict
The Spectator Australia stated that the Promise of the End Times is an Islamic prophecy within Hamas’s ideology involving liberation of Al-Aqsa Mosque and annihilation of Jews.
Geopolitical Interpretation vs. Religious Context
Despite this evidence, The Spectator Australia stated that British institutions primarily view the conflict through a geopolitical lens while showing little curiosity about the religious meaning of jihad to the attackers.