New Al Jazeera Photo Shows Full Hamas Military Leadership Meeting Before October 7
Al Jazeera has released a previously unseen image showing the commander and deputy commander of Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades alongside all five Gaza brigade chiefs at a high‑level meeting held years before the October 7 attacks.
A newly surfaced photograph published by Al Jazeera is drawing attention back to how Hamas prepared for the October 7 attacks and how intelligence services assessed the group’s military leadership.
The outlet released an image it describes as the last high-ranking meeting of Hamas military officials, held multiple years before October 7. The picture shows the commander of the General Headquarters of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, his deputy, and all five Hamas brigade commanders.
Those brigade chiefs are responsible for the Northern, Gaza City, Central, Khan Yunis, and Rafah areas. Their appearance together alongside the top command underlines that Hamas’s military structure brought its key operational figures into a single room well before the attacks.
The image reinforces the view that October 7 grew out of organized planning by a defined leadership circle rather than from loosely coordinated local cells. It points to a cohesive command system that met at a senior level years in advance.
For intelligence services in Israel and abroad, the photograph raises questions about what was known at the time about such gatherings and how that information was interpreted. A meeting of all major brigade commanders with the top command would be a significant moment in the life of an armed group, both for surveillance and for understanding its trajectory.
The timing and location of the meeting have not been fully detailed in the reporting so far. That limits firm conclusions about how it fit into Hamas’s operational planning. Even so, the image is likely to feature in official and independent reviews of how the run-up to October 7 was monitored and understood.
Regional intermediaries such as Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, which have dealings with Hamas’s political and military wings, now have another piece of visual evidence of how the group’s chain of command looked before the attacks. Any future negotiations over ceasefires or prisoner exchanges will still depend on decisions by figures linked to the structure shown in the photograph, to the extent they remain alive and in command.
Signals to watch include any further context from Al Jazeera on when and where the meeting occurred, official Israeli or Western comments on the image, and whether other documents or images emerge that shed more light on Hamas’s high-level decision-making before October 7.
Sources
- OSINT