TV: Security chiefs had ‘telltale signs’ of small scale attack two hours before Hamas struck

Without citing sources, Channel 12 reports that Israel’s security chiefs had “telltale signs” more than two hours before Hamas’s devastating assault on the morning of Saturday, October 7 that an attack was looming, albeit on a much smaller scale than the devastating onslaught in which 1,400 were killed by the terrorists in southern Israel.

The “concrete” indications pointed to a likely “battle” that day, in which a “force” of terrorists would attempt to infiltrate across the border, seize control of one or two communities and/or attempt kidnappings.

The indications were discussed in a previously reported consultation involving senior military and Shin Bet officials, including IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. But no alert was issued. The consultation took place at about 4 a.m., the TV report says; the onslaught began at 6:29 a.m.

Again as previously reported, the Shin Bet dispatched a small operations team to the border area. When the huge infiltration occurred, with Hamas bursting through the border at multiple locations and massacring Israelis at 22 communities and an outdoor music festival, the small Shin Bet team participated in the fighting at one of the kibbutzim that was attacked.

The security chiefs did not pass on word of the “telltale signs” of an imminent attack, did not alert IDF troops at the border, many of whom were killed at their bases and positions, did not move up tanks deployed in the area, and did not alert the local civil defense squads at nearby communities who fought the rampaging terrorists hours later, the report says.