A report from The Times of Israel claims that Israel had been warned by neighboring Egypt that a "terrible operation" was in the works, but that it was ignored by Israeli leaders. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies having heard this report. He called it "fake news."
After Israel was brutally attacked by terrorist Palestinian group Hamas over the weekend, leading to nearly 1,000 casualties (and counting) in the country, questions have been mounting as to how intelligence agencies could have been so clueless about the impending mayhem.
An Egyptian intelligence official on Monday said that warnings from his country had been repeatedly ignored by leadership in Jerusalem. His claim was that Cairo's intelligence minister had given a direct notice to Netanyahu. The report states that "In one of the said warnings, Egypt’s Intelligence Minister General Abbas Kamel personally called Netanyahu only 10 days before the massive attack that Gazans were likely to do 'something unusual, a terrible operation.'"
The threat from Gaza, stated the Egyptian official who spoke to the Associated Press, was ignored while they instead turned their attention to the West Bank. "We have warned them an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big. But they underestimated such warnings," he said, declining to give his name. He was not authorized by his government to give out this information, he told AP.
Netanyahu said the account was not true. "No early message came from Egypt and the prime minister did not speak or meet with the intelligence chief since the establishment of the government — not indirectly or directly," his office said.
"This is a major failure," former national security adviser to Netanyahu Yaakov Amidror said. "This operation actually proves that the [intelligence] abilities in Gaza were no good."
The Hamas attack resulted in a declaration of war from Israel on Saturday. Israel has since instructed those more than 2 million people living in Gaza to leave the area, though with Israel to the north and east, the sea to the west, and a cut off passage to Egypt to the south, it's unclear where they would go or how they would get there.
Israel began a campaign against Hamas in Gaza over the weekend, as the numbers of Israeli casualties continued to mount. Horrific accounts of atrocities were reported on social media, and Hamas is said to hold anywhere from 30-100 hostages, including some Americans and Canadians. Hamas said that they would execute hostages live on television in retaliation for strikes against Gaza.
