From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 12, 2023
IDF commanders said to have received intel the night before onslaught, held phone discussions
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleHebrew media reports that IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and other senior officers held phone discussions the night before Hamas’s devastating Saturday infiltration, after indications were received of something out of the ordinary.
The conclusion was that it was likely a drill and that more discussions were to be held in the morning, according to the reports, which say the military didn’t view the issue as particularly pressing and decided not to raise the alert or send more forces to the Gaza border area.
In response to the reports, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says the premier “was updated only at 6:29 a.m. about the fighting breaking out, and not before that.”
A (Hebrew) report by the Ha’aretz military correspondent Amos Harel on the emerging information begins with the assertion that “the broad assault by Hamas was enabled because of an intelligence failure and the absence of sufficient military deployment in the Gaza-envelope region.”
The emerging reports said two sets of telephone conversations were held overnight Friday-Saturday between the Shin Bet security service’s southern district chief, IDF military intelligence, the IDF’s operations branch and the Southern Command, with the knowledge of Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. A separate consultation was hosted by Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, Haaretz reported.
While the Shin Bet assessed the information as “weak scraps,” the agency did fear the possibility of a kidnap attempt and dispatched a small operations team to the south. No other steps were taken, Haaretz reported. In the event, it said, the small Shin Bet team participated in the fighting at one of the kibbutzim attacked by Hamas on Saturday and some of its members were injured.
Military officials have said this week that they did not have intelligence reports of an imminent attack. The IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said earlier today there were no major intelligence warnings, but confirmed there were some signs. “There was no such warning,” Hagari said of reports that senior intelligence officers discussed the signs on Friday night and agreed to continue the conversation in the morning.
Halevi said earlier today: “The IDF is responsible for the security of the country and its citizens, and on Saturday morning in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, we did not handle it… We will learn, we will investigate, but now is the time for war.”
The Times of Israel Community.