PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has admitted that the premier’s intelligence officers had received an Israel Defense Forces memo that shared details about suspicious Hamas activities, three hours before the group launched an attack on the country.
However, the office did not share details about the memo.
The premier’s office argued that this was justified given what it said was the document’s non-urgent framing, reported The Times of Israel.
The admission came in response to a Channel 12 report that said the IDF had drafted a document setting out the numerous worrying signs of Hamas activity in Gaza that night and sent it out to the intelligence officers of seven key Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant, reported the newspaper.
According to reports, Netanyahu’s intelligence officer did not pass the information to the concerned authorities.
The report claimed that the IDF did not probe the reason behind not passing the information.
The report quoted the IDF officer who oversaw the IDF’s intelligence investigation, Moshe Schneid, as saying as quoted by The Times of Israel: “I didn’t check what went on there [in the chain of command in the Prime Minister’s Office] because I was very wary of probing the political echelon. I met the prime minister’s intelligence officer several times in the street and I was careful not even to ask him about it.”
The report also quoted outgoing IDF chief Herzi Halevi saying that the IDF did not publicize the fact that the Prime Minister’s Office was alerted to Hamas’s suspicious activity three hours ahead of the invasion ‘even though this could have helped us in the face of the bad things that are being said about us. We are very responsible and discreet. It’s a shame this is not reciprocated’, the newspaper reported.
It quoted Halevi as saying: “If the prime minister’s intelligence officer was a person of integrity, he should already have told [Netanyahu] that he knew about [Hamas preparations just before the attack] and did not update [Netanyahu]. [The officer] did not do this.”
Netantyahu’s office clarified that it did not receive any advance information on the attack.
“It is very unfortunate that the chief of staff chooses to publicly attack a moral and trustworthy officer in the IDF,” said the Prime Minister’s Office in a statement as quoted by The Times of Israel, “while attempting to shift the responsibility for the October 7 lapse onto his subordinates.”
Gaza Ceasefire
Israel Sunday said it endorsed a proposal to extend the truce in Gaza temporarily as a bridging measure after the first phase of its ceasefire with Hamas is all set to end, media reports said.
The proposal to extend the truce, put forward by US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, would cover Ramzan, due to end in late March, according to a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office released just after midnight.
The first phase of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas was set to expire over the weekend without any certainty as to the second phase.
Negotiations have so far been inconclusive, with hostages still held in Gaza and the lives of more than two million Palestinians hanging in the balance.
According to the Israeli statement, the extension would see half of the hostages still in Gaza released on the day the deal comes into effect, with the rest to be released at the end if agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire.
There was no immediate response from Hamas, which earlier rejected the idea of an extension.
