Mohammed Deif, one of the leaders of the Hamas terrorist organization who was directly responsible for carrying out the October 7 massacre, considered calling off the attack and postponing it to a later date, according to a special investigation that will be published tomorrow by the Yediot Aharonot newspaper.

The investigation will reveal that "after 5 a.m. on October 7, 2023, 'Brother Haj Ali', as Mohammad Deif is referred to for confidentiality in the internal documents of Hamas' military wing, considered stopping everything. Deif wanted to order the cessation of the feverish preparations for the final hour, which had entered their final phase, and to freeze the planned attack until further notice."

According to the investigation, Deif turned to his subordinates to ask what was happening on the Israeli side. When he heard that nothing was happening there, he began to suspect that the IDF and Shin Bet were preparing an ambush for him. The description of this moment is one of the most dramatic to be revealed as part of the IDF investigations into the failures of October 7.

One of the Israeli intelligence officials said that Deif wanted to maintain the element of surprise completely and carried out extreme compartmentalization so that word of the attack would not leak.

Deif, the head of head of Hamas's militant wing ultimately had the attack go ahead as planned. He was eliminated in an Israeli airstrike in the al-Mawasi area in July.