Liberman tells unofficial Oct. 7 probe he warned of Hamas invasion threat as far back as 2016

Yisrael Beytenu chief and former defense minister Avigdor Liberman tells an independent civilian commission investigating the events leading up to October 7 that he had warned against such an eventuality as far back as 2016.

“On December 21, 2016, I wrote an 11-page document and delivered it in the presence of the military secretary to the then-prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to the then-IDF chief of staff, Gadi Eisenkot, and to the then-head of Military Intelligence,” he says. He claims that the document’s warnings corresponded “one-to-one” with what happened last October, even if he mistakenly believed Hamas would attack in late 2022.

Excerpts of his letter have previously been published by Hebrew media.

“I gave two interviews, one to Israel National News, in which I said that Hamas was going to attack, and the last interview came out on October 6,” he continues, stating that he had cautioned that Israel was at the time in a worse situation than before the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

“The prime minister was aware of all these things,” Liberman adds, stating that Netanyahu had previously made similar comments regarding Hamas’s intent to invade Israeli territory during a Knesset committee meeting.

Liberman resigned as defense minister in November 2018, bringing down Netanyahu’s government, following a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian terror groups in Gaza in the wake of an unprecedentedly fierce two-day barrage of over 400 rockets fired by Hamas and other terror groups at Israel.

Turning to Netanyahu’s handling of the war, Liberman argues that “the prime minister does not talk to the defense minister, the defense minister does not talk to the national security minister” and that there is “a complete disconnect” between the senior officials.

“In a properly functioning country, the prime minister and the defense minister talk several times a day.”