Israel's tank was ambushed by Palestinian's fighters
STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT. The Gaza-based Palestinian militant group Hamas originally sought to carry out its October 7 attack during the Jewish holiday of Passover, which fell on April 5 this year, Israel’s Channel 12 TV reported on Saturday, citing sources in the country’s military intelligence.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had caught wind of the planned assault, detecting the early signs of Hamas preparations, soldiers with the 8200 signal intelligence unit told the broadcaster. The data reportedly prompted the IDF to increase its alert level, which led to the Palestinian group abandoning the initial plan.
The IDF eventually considered the intelligence warnings to have been a false alarm, the report added. Hamas, the sources claim, focused on internal security and kept most of its members in the dark about subsequent plans, including the rescheduled incursion, which took place on October 7.
According to Israeli media reports, surveillance units on the border with Gaza alerted the IDF to “unusual” Hamas training exercises some three months before the October attack, but their concerns were reportedly dismissed as “fantasies.”
The Financial Times also reported, citing sources, that Israeli border sentries had compiled a detailed file on the then-looming Hamas attack and presented it to the highest-ranking intelligence officer in the southern command, weeks before it took place. The document reportedly contained “specific warnings,” namely plans to breach the border at multiple points and seize local settlements, according to the outlet.
The IDF neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the ignored intelligence, when approached by the Financial Times. Earlier, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz had cited an unnamed female soldier who blamed institutional sexism in the ranks for the lack of attention to reports from its border sentries.
The October 7 Hamas attack claimed the lives of about 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians. West Jerusalem responded with heavy bombardments of Gaza, followed by a ground operation. The death toll on the Palestinian side has since surpassed 14,800, according to officials in the enclave.
Israeli intelligence received a detailed report on an impending assault by Hamas shortly before the Palestinian militant group’s actual attack on October 7, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing persons familiar with the matter.
The warning, compiled by border sentries, – “many of them female soldiers,” the FT was told– arrived through secure communication lines to the highest-ranking intelligence officer in the southern command a few weeks before the attack, sources said, without identifying the senior security official.
The report contained “specific warnings” on the looming assault, namely Hamas’ plans to breach the border at multiple points, enter Israeli territory and seize local settlements, a person with direct knowledge of its contents told FT.
The assessment was based on intelligence that included videos of Hamas militants in training. The high-ranking intelligence officer who received the report, however, dismissed the assessment as an “imaginary scenario” and no action was taken.
Reached by FT for comment, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the intelligence report and its fate, stating its “commanders and soldiers were exclusively focused strictly” on the battle against Hamas rather than finding those to blame for Israeli failures in the October 7 attack.
“Following the war, a thorough investigation will be conducted to clarify all details,” the IDF told FT.
The new allegations follow a recent report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which cited an unnamed Israeli female soldier, who blamed institutionalized sexism in the ranks of the IDF for the lack of attention to reports from its border sentries.
According to the report, female surveillance troops relayed their concerns about unusual Hamas activities months before the incursion. They’d reportedly observed militants engaged in briefings near the border fence, training to disable surveillance cameras and to target Israeli tanks, as well as an increase in drone activity.
“It’s a unit made up entirely of young girls and young female commanders,” the source told Haaretz of the soldiers who’d compiled the warning for their superiors. “There is no doubt that if there were men sitting at those screens, things would look different.”
