Speaking to New Yorker magazine about Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel:

“The soldiers are the ones who plan, execute, and so on, but they abide by the general policies put forth by our political bureau. We were surprised by the date but not by the actions.”Adam Rasgon and David D. Kirkpatrick, “What Was Hamas Thinking?,” New Yorker, October 13, 2023, https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-was-hamas-thinking.