Report: IDF alerted PM’s intel officer of worrying Hamas activity 3 hours before Oct. 7 invasion; Officer didn’t pass material up chain

The IDF drafted a document setting out the numerous worrying signs of Hamas activity in Gaza at 3:30 on the morning of October 7, three hours before Hamas-led terrorists invaded, and sent the document to the intelligence officers of seven key Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then defense minister Yoav Gallant, Channel 12 reports.

Gallant’s office was unable to reach his intelligence officer, who, therefore, did not receive the document at that time.

Netanyahu’s intelligence officer and the other five all received the document. But Netanyahu’s officer did not pass the information up the chain, the report says.

The IDF did not investigate why the material was not passed on, the report says, because its investigations of the October 7 failures, published this week, did not touch on the political echelon.

The report quotes the IDF officer who oversaw the IDF’s intelligence investigation, Moshe Schneid, saying, “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 quotes 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.”

It quotes Halevi adding: “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.”

Netanyahu has repeatedly made clear that he received no specific advance warning ahead of the Hamas attack.