Report: Top IDF general advised preemptive strike against Hamas, year before Oct. 7

Almost a year before Hamas’s murderous onslaught in southern Israel on October 7, Maj. Gen. Eliezer Toledano, who was then serving as the head of the IDF’s Southern Command, warned that it was a matter of time before Israel would need to preemptively attack the Gaza-ruling terror group as it grew more powerful, a TV report revealed on Sunday evening.

According to a report published by the Kan public broadcaster, Toledano told senior defense officials in November 2022 that Hamas was planning an assault on Israel in which it would breach the border in several places, launching a multi-pronged attack, much like on October 7 when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel and massacred 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 240 hostage.

In the months since the unprecedented assault on southern Israel, there have been a number of reports of warnings and alerts about Hamas’s attack plans and preparations.

In the November 2022 meeting with defense officials, Toledano was reported by Kan to have said that “since campaigns have a price, as long as a significant military advantage is maintained, we will strive to avoid the next war. But somewhere down the line along the enemy’s progress, there will be a point where we have to launch a preemptive attack.”

According to Kan, Toledano presented a three-step plan for the theoretical preemptive attack, which would have crippled Hamas’s power and ability to launch an assault.

The first step of his plan would have seen Israel target Hamas’s military capabilities, severely impacting its ability to retaliate.

After crippling the terror group’s military power, the second step would see the near-complete destruction of Hamas’s capabilities.

These steps would have laid the groundwork for the third and final part of the plan, the IDF’s return to Gaza and establishment of military control, the report said.

Further details, such as how the IDF would enact each stage of the plan, were not made public by Kan.

חשיפה: אלוף פיקוד דרום הכריז שנה לפני מתקפת 7 באוקטובר כי יהיה צורך לצאת למתקפת מנע נגד חמאס | @avishaigrinzaig עם הפרטים#חדשותהערב pic.twitter.com/WOoes6pgc2

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) January 7, 2024

Toledano noted at the meeting that Hamas’s perception of Israel was that it was uninterested in reconquering the Strip and that a victory for the Jewish state was a draw, whereby the terror group continued to control the enclave.

Toledano’s plans, as published by Kan, only examined the day after a theoretical preemptive attack from a military standpoint and made no mention of Israeli civilians returning to the Strip.

Toledano was replaced as the head of the Southern Command in July 2023 and currently heads the Strategy Directorate of the IDF General Staff.

Senior IDF and defense establishment officials have come under the spotlight in the wake of the unprecedented failure to prevent the October 7 assault.

Since October 7, several reports have alleged that the IDF ignored warning signs of a threat brewing in the Gaza Strip.

Most recently, Channel 12 reported over the weekend that the head of the IDF intelligence unit charged with questioning IDF assessments and conceptions warned four times in the three weeks leading up to October 7 that the Gaza terror group could soon launch an attack.

The head of the unit was reported to have written twice to supervisors in late September and gave two separate speeches laying out the theory that Hamas could soon launch an attack.

Additionally, reports in November said that the IDF’s prestigious 8200 signal intelligence unit reportedly warned senior officers before the October 7 atrocities that Hamas was preparing a highly organized and meticulously planned mass invasion of Israel but were told their concerns were “fantasies.”

Kan said Sunday that Toledano’s meeting was held amid those warnings.

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi last week announced a panel that will probe its failures leading up to the October 7 onslaught.