Pre-Attack Intelligence Warnings
Former Israeli Defense Minister States Officials Received Multiple Warnings Before October 7 Attack
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Former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said Israeli intelligence received a Hamas message weeks before the October 7, 2023, attack in which Yahya Sinwar threatened to “shake the prisons”; agencies reportedly assessed it as related to a planned kidnapping of Elizabeth Tsurkov. Gallant also alleged that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received warnings from foreign leaders without informing him and excluded him from sensitive discussions with U.S. officials during the war. Separately, The Atlantic reported that Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel visited Israel on September 26, 2023, and warned that Hamas appeared to be preparing a major attack, urging economic concessions to defuse tensions. The exact Israeli recipients and response to Kamel’s warning remain unclear, and Netanyahu’s office and a former national security official have denied that it was received. The accounts have renewed scrutiny of what Israeli leaders knew before the attack and how warnings were assessed and shared.
Key Points
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An Israeli airport-authority flight log reportedly showed that the Egyptian intelligence-linked charter plane stayed at Ben Gurion Airport for about 67 minutes before returning to Cairo; the visit coincided with Israeli leaders’ commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War.
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The Atlantic’s reporting said Kamel did not give Israeli officials a specific date or details of the multipronged attack Hamas would launch less than two weeks later.
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Gallant was dismissed by Netanyahu in November 2024 amid what Netanyahu called a “crisis of trust”; Gallant had advocated a more pragmatic approach focused on securing a hostage deal, while Netanyahu maintained a different approach to the war.
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The Prime Minister’s Office later released Netanyahu’s schedule for the morning of October 7 amid disputes over when and how he communicated with senior security officials as the attack unfolded; the attack killed about 1,200 people.
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