JERUSALEM — Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, now deceased, intended for the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel to trigger a large-scale war against Israel, involving Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies.

Hamas, Iran, and Hezbollah have long shared the goal of destroying Israel.

However, Sinwar’s vision has backfired, resulting in significant negative consequences for Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the “Axis of Resistance.”

The decision by President to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities on Saturday highlights how Sinwar’s plan has been subverted.

Sarit Zehavi, a security expert at the Israel Alma Research and Education Center, stated that the October 7 attack has brought about a “huge change in the Middle East.”

The setbacks for enemies of the U.S. and Israel begin with the weakening of Hamas in 2024.

On July 31, 2024, Israel carried out an operation that resulted in the death of , an Iranian-backed Palestinian terrorist overseeing the Hamas Political Bureau, inside Iran. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, currently in hiding, has promised retaliation.

In October 2024, Israel killed Sinwar. Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israeli forces had eliminated a key terrorist responsible for constructing the extensive tunnel system along Israel’s southern border.

The death of IDF’s , Hassan Nasrallah, in September 2024, was part of Israel’s successful effort to dismantle the terrorist group’s leadership in Beirut.

Days before Nasrallah’s death, Mossad launched a cyberattack that targeted communications carried by thousands of Hezbollah members.

In December, Digital reported exclusively on Hezbollah’s financial difficulties.

Israel’s significant weakening of Hezbollah appears to have created deterrence. Hezbollah has not engaged in the current war between Israel and Iran, despite Tehran’s expectation that it would.

Zehavi acknowledged Sinwar’s tactical decision to invade but cautioned against overstating his influence.

She noted that , reportedly killed by Israel on Saturday and the head of Palestinian affairs in the Quds Force (a branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps), was “deeply involved” in planning the October 7 invasion. Zehavi added that documents found by the IDF in Gaza revealed that Izadil knew of Hamas’s invasion plans in advance.

Zehavi, an IDF lieutenant colonel (Res.), said, “It is too soon to tell where those changes will lead us” in the Middle East.

Regarding the enemies of Israel and the U.S., Zehavi stated that the primary outcome of October 7 is that “Israel can no longer tolerate monsters who threaten its very existence. We are eliminating those monsters one after the other, with the support of the United States, which is also very important.” She questioned whether these terrorist regimes and organizations will recover.