Israeli armour deployed on the border with Gaza prior to a ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave.<\/p>\n
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), has subsequently confirmed that Egyptian intelligence warned both the U.S. and Israel that a major terror attack was imminent<\/a>. So Prime Minister Netanyahu\u2019s office is flat out lying when it denies that Israel was not warned of impending attacks.<\/p>\n Israeli Prime Minister was indeed warned but he chose to ignore those warnings. For he knew that a major attack by Hamas would give him the perfect pretext to solve the problem with Gaza once and for all.<\/p>\n We are now seeing that as nearly a million Palestinians flee Gaza and the IDF prepares to launch a ground campaign. So ignore claims of ignorance from Israel\u2019s leaders reported below. They knew what was coming and cynically exploited the threat to launch a devastating ethnic cleansing operation, which will cost thousands of innocent lives. Ed.<\/p>\n Before the Palestinian militant organization Hamas launched its unprecedented, large-scale attacks on Israel<\/a> over the weekend, the Israeli government was repeatedly warned that “something big” was brewing from the group that controls the Gaza Strip, an Egyptian intelligence official told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n Yet Israeli officials downplayed the threat from Gaza and instead focused on the occupied West Bank, the anonymous Egyptian intelligence official claimed, the news outlet reported<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n “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 Egyptian official told the AP.<\/p>\n The Egyptian official said that Egypt, which has historically acted as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, told Israel repeatedly that “something big” was being planned.<\/p>\n The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider on Monday, but his office, in a statement on social media, called the report that a warning had been given from Egypt “absolutely false.”<\/p>\n “The report to the effect that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a message in advance from Egypt is absolutely false,” the prime minister’s office said in a tweet<\/a>.<\/p>\n Netanyahu’s office added, “No message in advance has arrived from Egypt and the Prime Minister has neither spoken, nor met, with the head of Egyptian intelligence since the formation of the government, neither directly nor indirectly. This is totally fake news.”<\/p>\n Israel’s intelligence agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider on Monday and a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces declined to comment when asked about the AP report.<\/p>\n Early on Saturday, Hamas unleashed its surprise assault on Israel \u2014 the deadliest attack there in decades \u2014 at the end of the Jewish Sukkot holiday.<\/p>\n At least 700 Israelis have been killed in the attacks and dozens more, including women, children, and seniors, have been taken hostage by Hamas<\/a> into Gaza.<\/p>\n In the aftermath of the attacks, Israel declared war on Hamas<\/a> and launched retaliatory strikes<\/a> in Gaza. The death toll there was over 400 as of Monday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.<\/a><\/p>\n Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Netanyahu, called it a “major failure” that Israel was so blindsided by the Hamas attack in an interview with the AP.<\/p>\nAn Egyptian intelligence official said Israel’s government downplayed threats from Gaza and was repeatedly warned of ‘something big’<\/strong><\/h1>\n
Natalie Musumeci \u2013 Business Insider Oct 9, 2023<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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