A recent bombshell report by the New York Times claims that Israeli officials had a detailed, approximately 40-page document outlining “point by point” the plans for the October 7 Hamas attack on Israeli soil.
Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the terrorist attack more than a year before it happened, documents, emails and interviews show.
Most of this information was shared with the Shin Bet security service, officials have said, in the weeks since the war erupted, adding that the political leadership, which changed at the end of last year, was familiar with at least some of the intelligence. But Israel didn’t properly prepare for the threat and didn’t seem to believe that the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, intended to implement the plan.
“Surprise them through the gate. If you do, you will certainly prevail.”
The document, which Israeli authorities codenamed “Jericho Wall” is reported to have outlined “a methodical assault” in which drones would attack Israel’s surveillance system as terrorists entered the country on foot and using paragliders and motorcycles under the cover of a barrage of rockets.
The document is also said to have included the locations and sizes of IDF forces in the area, and specifically stated as an objective to overwhelm the military base in Re’im, the site of the nature party on October 7 that was targeted early in the attack. At the top of the document was a quotation from the Qur’an: “Surprise them through the gate. If you do, you will certainly prevail.”
The plans “circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders,” the NYT report says. The IDF’s Gaza division wrote an assessment of it, reporting plans for “a new raid, unprecedented in its scope,” but concluding that the plans were a “compass,” detailing Hamas’s ambitions for the future, rather than an immediate plan of action. There were also warnings by the army’s women spotters on the Gaza border.
Then, in July 2023, the IDF’s signal intelligence division, Unit 8200, reported that Hamas had been spotted conducting training exercises that mirrored the blueprint in “Jericho Wall,” including exercises to simulate shooting down Israeli airplanes, occupying a kibbutz, and overrunning a military base.
During the exercise, Hamas terrorists used the same quotation from the Qur’an that appeared at the top of the “Jericho Wall” document. The Unit 8200 analyst who wrote the report, an experienced professional non-commissioned officer specializing in the enemy’s military doctrine, warned that Hamas was building the capacity to put the plan into action, and that the exercises Hamas was engaged in closely reflected what was outlined in the document!
Over a period of months before the war, she wrote three documents warning her superiors about Hamas’ intentions. A few months ago, she reported that Hamas in Gaza had completed exercises simulating an invasion of kibbutzim and border-fence posts.
The NCO’s warning was passed on to senior officers in her unit and to field intelligence. The colonel who received the report apparently called the exercise “totally imaginative,” saying, “in short, let’s wait patiently.”
An internal debate followed, with others endorsing the analyst’s warning. One even invoked the example of the Yom Kippur War, writing “We already underwent a similar experience 50 years ago on the southern front in connection with a scenario that seemed imaginary, and history may repeat itself if we are not careful.” That comparison has been ubiquitous in Israel since the first moments of the attack.
“Jericho Wall” was not the first intelligence that had prompted such a debate, the NYTimes reports. In September 2016, the Ministry of Defense prepared a top-secret memo, signed by then-defense minister Avigdor Lieberman, warning of an invasion and hostage-taking operation by Hamas.
The memo outlined Hamas’s purchases of drones, GPS jammers, and other sophisticated weaponry. It also reported that Hamas had swelled its fighting force by 6,000 men in two years, and aimed to grow it from 27,000 to 40,000 by 2020.
Did Netanyahu was warned about the 7th of October?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides and allies have tried to blame senior security officials, especially Military Intelligence, for the debacle of Oct. 7. However, there were enough warnings and “Red Flags” from various sources and intelligence services.
The Egyptian intelligence services were the first to sound the alarm: Intelligence Minister Kamal Abbas personally warned his Israeli counterparts. Colonel Yigal Carmon, director of the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), personally warned his friend, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that something was up. But, according to Carmon, Netanyahu did not listen.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has produced two reports on the preparation of this attack. According to the “New York Times”, the second, dated October 5, was sent to the Israeli authorities. According to “Corriere della Sera”, the director of the Shin Bet (counter-intelligence) then called a meeting of the central directors of all security services at 8am on the 7th.
Nevertheless, Israeli officials had time to move the rave party to just outside the Gaza border, and to give leave to the forces charged with protecting it.
Today, many of the hostages’ families are convinced that Benjamin Netanyahu let this happen in order to justify his operation against Hamas.
Critical IDF surveillance videos from Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7 missing…
During a recent visit by senior IDF officers to various brigade headquarters, a troubling revelation came to light. It became apparent that surveillance camera footage along the Gaza border, dating back to the day the war with Hamas broke out, had mysteriously vanished. Furthermore, critical recordings from that Black Shabbat had been removed from the central database. These developments have raised suspicions and fueled a sense that everyone is primarily looking out for their own interests with an eye on what comes next.
IDF’s official statement The surveillance camera footage along the Gaza border from October 7 has not been deleted or missing, the IDF announced on Sunday evening after speculations about the security footage vanishing started floating around. "All the materials from the operational systems of the IDF related to documented events, are preserved and accessible to the relevant parties," the IDF wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Like other operational materials, access to the materials is blocked to those who are not required to deal with them. Any other claim is baseless."
Reserve officers also voiced their concerns about the apparent disappearance of crucial video footage.
These videos originated from various IDF surveillance cameras along the Gaza border, part of the military network known as “ZiTube.” The missing footage dated back to October 7 and seemed to have been deliberately removed to hinder in-depth investigation into events that transpired in Palestinian territory, border breaches, and the overall situation.
Sources within the Gaza Division also revealed a “disruption” in the recordings of communications from October 7. According to these sources, “Some of the recordings have either disappeared or were simply downloaded from the network and relocated under the directives of commanding officers. Consequently, we are unable to access them. Communication recordings are typically deleted after a specific period, unless someone intentionally preserves them within the system, and there exists such a functionality,” the sources added.
“It seems that someone made a deliberate choice to either transfer or delete these recordings to ensure that no one could listen to them. These recordings are vital, as they provide a comprehensive account of what transpired and what actions need to be taken, with particular emphasis on the critical, initial eight hours, including moments when there was a lack of communication channels.”
6 major questions still unanswered…
From what has been disclosed up to date from various sources the official version of the Israel-Hamas war raises more questions than answers. There are six major questions, or maybe contradictions, that remain unanswered:
> 1. How did Hamas manage to dig and build 500 kilometers of tunnels at a depth of 30 meters without arousing suspicion?
- Tunnel-drilling equipment is considered to have both civilian and military uses. It is not manufactured in Gaza and cannot be brought in under any circumstances, unless there is complicity within the Israeli administration.
- The excavated earth (1 million m3) was not detected by aerial surveillance. Even supposing it had been scattered in many different places and mixed in with the soil from other construction sites, it is impossible for the Israeli intelligence services not to have detected anything for many years.
- Tunnel ventilation equipment is not considered to be for military use. It is possible to bring it into Gaza, but the quantity required should have attracted attention.
- The reinforced concrete needed to solidify the walls is not manufactured in Gaza. It too is not considered military equipment, but the quantity required should have attracted attention.
> 2. How could Hamas stockpile such an arsenal?
Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, has large quantities of rockets and handguns and other military arsenal at its disposal. Hamas may have manufactured parts of the rockets itself, but it has managed to import thousands of handguns into Gaza, mainly from the Ukraine, despite high-performance scanners. This seems impossible without complicity within the Israeli administration.
> 3. Why did Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed all those who warned him?
- Egypt’s Minister of Intelligence, Kamel Abbas, personally phoned him to warn of a major Hamas attack.
- His friend, Colonel Yigal Carmon, Director of Memri, personally warned him of a major Hamas attack.
- The CIA sent Israel two intelligence reports warning of a major Hamas attack.
- Defense Minister Yoav Galland was fired in July because he warned the government of the “perfect storm” prepared by Hamas.
> 4. Why did Benjamin Netanyahu demobilize the security forces on the evening of October 6?
The Prime Minister had authorized the Security Forces to stand down for the holidays of Sim’hat Torah and Shemini Atzeret. At the time of the attack, therefore, there were no personnel available to monitor the security fence around Gaza.
> 5. Why did security officials remain locked up at Shin Bet headquarters that morning?
The Director of Counterintelligence (Shin Bet), Ronen Bar, had called a meeting of the heads of all the security services for 8 a.m. on October 7, to examine the second CIA report warning of a major Hamas operation in preparation.
However, the attack began at 6.30 a.m. on the same day. Security officials didn’t react until 11am. What did they do during this interminable meeting?
> 6. Who triggered the “Hannibal directive” in this way, and why?
- When the Security Forces began to react, the IDF was ordered to apply the “Hannibal Directive”. This stipulates that enemies must not be allowed to take Israeli soldiers hostage, even if it means killing them. An Israeli police investigation confirms that the Israeli Air Force bombed the crowd fleeing the Supernova Rave Party. A significant proportion of those killed on October 7 were therefore not victims of Hamas, but of Israeli fire.
- In theory, the “Hannibal Directive” only applies to soldiers. Who decided to bomb a crowd of Israeli civilians, and why?
- It is not possible today to determine with any certainty which Israelis were killed by the attackers and which were killed by their own army.
P.S. There is always an energy angle in recent geopolitical developments and the eastern Mediterranean could not be excluded from this norm.
Therefore, one must follow the gas to understand one of the crucial reasons for the war between Hamas and Israel. It’s the same old story, wars are fought for reasons of national security and for money. Gas is a fundamental resource for the economies of the future.
Opposite the Gaza Strip there is a substantial energy source of natural gas that could bring electricity and wealth to the Strip and the rest of Palestine. The field is called Gaza Marine and is located approximately 36 kilometers from the Palestinian coast, at 610 meters deep. According to estimates, it would contain 1,000 billion cubic meters of gas and provide revenues of $4.5 billion. This field, discovered almost a quarter of a century ago, has never been exploited. The new conflict that broke out in the Strip came just when Israel and the Palestinian Authority, with the intermediation of Egypt, seemed to have found an agreement to start work on the field!
to be continued…
Sources:
https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-gaza-attack-intel-a5287a18773232f26ca171233be01721
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/us/politics/cia-reports-gaza-hamas-israel.html
