Israel ignored warnings about Hamas’ plans to conduct a surprise attack, an Egyptian intelligence official said, according to the Associated Press.
Israel was focused on the West Bank while war ensued in Gaza, according to the official. Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel’s border from Gaza on Saturday, killing, kidnapping and raping hundreds of Israelis. (RELATED: Terrorists Infiltrate Israel From Lebanon, Military Says)
“We have warned them an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big. But they underestimated such warnings,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to publicly speak of the intelligence, said, according to the AP.
A salvo of rockets is fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza towards Israel on October 9, 2023. Israel relentlessly pounded the Gaza Strip overnight and into October 9 as fighting with Hamas continued around the Gaza Strip, as the death toll from the war against the Palestinian militants surged above 1,100. (Photo by IBRAHIM HAMS / AFP)
Much of Israel’s attention has been paid to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul and the division it created within the country, contributing to the country being caught in a surprise attack, according to the AP. Israelis living in the West Bank, who support Netanyahu, had been calling for an increase in security in the area.
“That roiled the IDF in a way that was, I think, we discovered was a huge distraction,” Martin Indyk, a special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations during the Obama administration, said, according to the AP.
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