File: People take part in a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, outside of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, March 31, 2024.
The IDF confirmed Thursday that before the outbreak of the Gaza war, it had warned PM Netanyahu that the crisis over the judicial overhaul was encouraging Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas to risk potential action against Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied that the Israel Defense Forces warned him before October 7 of the increasing danger of war, after the army said earlier Thursday that it had alerted the prime minister to how Israel’s enemies perceived internal divisions in the country.
The IDF said that Netanyahu had received four different warning documents from the Military Intelligence Directorate between March and July 2023 “which illustrate how Israel’s enemies in general viewed the damage to the State of Israel and the IDF in particular” of the judicial coup.
The army confirmed this in response to a Freedom of Information request submitted by Hatzlacha, an organization that seeks to promote and encourage proper civil enforcement of regulation and compliance.
In November, Haaretz reported that the head of the research division of Military Intelligence warned the prime minister that the crisis surrounding the judicial overhaul was encouraging Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas to risk potential action against Israel, perhaps even simultaneously
“We are seeing deliberation on whether to sit on the fence and let Israel continue to weaken itself, or to take initiative and worsen its situation,” wrote Brigadier General Amit Sa’ar in the letters to Netanyahu in March and July last year.
Netanyahu said in response to the IDF’s announcement that the documents did not refer to Hamas’ intent to strike from within the Gaza Strip, but that the opposite was true.
According to him, the security establishment assessed that Hamas did not want to attack Israel from Gaza, but was instead looking for calm in the area.
In an interview with Israel’s Channel 14 News in April last year, Netanyahu was asked whether the Military Intelligence Directorate’s assessment that the risk of war was increasing was “serious.” Netanyahu responded “I think [the warning] is exaggerated, but we are always preparing for this possibility.”
Other warnings
Israel was warned by Egypt of potential violence three days before Hamas’ deadly cross-border raid, a US congressional panel chairman has said, according to BBC.
US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee head Michael McCaul told reporters of the alleged warning.
“We know that Egypt has warned the Israelis three days prior that an event like this could happen,” Mr McCaul told reporters following a closed-door intelligence briefing on October 12 , 2023 for lawmakers about the Middle East crisis, according to AFP news agency.
“I don’t want to get too much into classified, but a warning was given,” the Texas Republican added. “I think the question was at what level.”
An Egyptian intelligence official told the Associated Press news agency last October that Cairo had repeatedly warned the Israelis “something big” was being planned from Gaza.
“We have warned them an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big. But they underestimated such warnings,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Cairo official said Israeli officials had played down the threat from Gaza, instead focusing on the West Bank.
Sir Alex Younger, who served as chief of the UK’s foreign intelligence agency between 2014 and 2020, said Hamas fighters were able to carry out their attack on 7 October due to “institutional complacency” in Israel.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today Podcast last October there may have been an assumption by Israel that Hamas was not interested in a new conflict, so any information that contradicted that was discounted.
Egypt – which controls who crosses its border with Gaza – often serves as a mediator between Israel and Hamas.
Haaretz/ News Agencies
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