Overview

• Israeli officials say a six-page handwritten memo was recovered from an underground complex used by Hamas commander Muhammed Sinwar after his May 2025 killing.
• Dated Aug. 24, 2022, the document instructs fighters to enter residential areas, set them alight with gasoline or diesel, and prepare operations to burn entire neighborhoods or kibbutzim.
• Unit 8200 intercepts from Oct. 7 record commanders urging, “Start setting homes on fire,” with orders to take many hostages and to film violence for broadcast.
• Israeli document examiners report handwriting similarities between the memo and known Yahya Sinwar writings, including a 2018 note to Benjamin Netanyahu and a 1989 police statement.
• A confidential Gazit Institute analysis describes the planning as featuring extraordinary brutality, with the findings feeding debates over culpability, intelligence failures, and Gaza’s stabilization.