Posted on 06/17/2024 3:56:56 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie
A document put together within the IDF’s Gaza Division less than three weeks before October 7 warned that Hamas was training for a large-scale invasion of Israel during which hostages would be taken en masse, according to an Israeli television report Monday.
The document by Military Intelligence’s Unit 8200 was circulated on September 19 and was reportedly brought to the attention of at least some senior intelligence officials, but ignored.
It estimated the target number of hostages at 200-250, according to the Kan public broadcaster, citing unnamed security sources. During the actual October 7 massacre, 251 hostages were taken and 1,200 others were killed, mostly civilians.
Similar reports were subsequently published by other Hebrew media outlets.
The detailed document described a series of exercises by the Palestinian terror group’s elite forces who drilled raids on Israeli towns and military posts, on how to hold soldiers and civilians hostage when back inside Gaza, and in what conditions they can be killed.
Commandos in Hamas’s elite Nukhba force were instructed not to leave documents behind after they raided bases, according to the memo. Terrorists were told to ensure hostages did not have telephones on them, were forbidden from informing hostages’ families of their condition, and to move them if it became apparent that Israel determined their location.
Terrorists were also required to threaten to kill hostages to deter others from escaping.
The document was brought to the attention of senior intelligence officials, at least within the Gaza Division, unnamed security officials told Kan. The government and top military leaders have contended they were not warned about an imminent planned invasion at the time.
The report added that the most extreme scenario the Gaza Division had prepared for before October 7 was dozens of terrorists breaching the border in three spots — far less than the estimated 3,000 who ended up entering Israel during the onslaught.
One of the soldiers involved in the report wrote after October 7, “I feel like crying, yelling and swearing,” according to Kan.
In its response to the report, the military did not acknowledge the document, but said it was investigating the failures that led to the massacre and would present them, “transparently to the public.”
The report follows several others in which the military was said to have received some prior warning of the massacre. Israel had multiple sources of information on Hamas’s drills and other preparations for an assault in the weeks and even hours ahead of October 7, reportedly including a 2022 attack plan from the terror group.
A military assessment in 2022 determined it was too soon to say the plan had been approved by Hamas, and when an analyst with the country’s signals intelligence unit noted the organization had carried out a training exercise in line with the plan, her warnings were dismissed.
Palestinian rioters during clashes with Israeli security forces along the frontier with Israel, east of Gaza City, September 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
Following the October 7 onslaught, surveillance soldiers who served along the border with Gaza said they had raised concerns before that day about suspicious activity but were ignored.
The IDF had long touted its security fence, with cameras, watchtowers and high-tech sensors, as providing security to residents of Gaza border towns. But on October 7, Hamas terrorists knocked chunks of it aside with explosives and bulldozers at multiple locations, then drove right through the gaping holes in jeeps and on motorcycles, while others sailed over in hang gliders, as drones dropped explosives on observation towers and took out cameras.
Amid a simultaneous rocket barrage across southern and central Israel, an estimated 3,000 terrorists stormed into southern Israel and slaughtered soldiers and civilians alike, with some local resistance but the military establishment slow to react.
The Israeli military announced earlier this month that it would begin to present its investigations into its failures in the lead-up to the Hamas terror group’s October 7 attacks in July.
> Those who knew the warnings and didn’t act on them need to be tried and executed. <
Sometime such attacks are due to gross incompetence. That’s probably the case here.
But it also depends on the amount of information coming in every week, week after week. With so much information, it’s often difficult to separate what’s true and what’s just rumor. I’m not making excuses. Just pointing something out.
In my opinion, the real criminals on the Israeli side are those who denied the average Israeli citizen the right to self-defense. Even in the border towns weapons were kept locked up in central locations. They should have been in every home.
I agree with your assessment. The problem with that is there's a real possibility that an Israeli version of Jimmy Carter will become the next PM.
Hey! Knew you’d show up like flies to merde.
Kicked some major ham ass butt the last month. Good times!
When are you going to join your preferred side in Rafah? There must be an international legion run by Soros down there ... Go for it!
Disagree. Generalized warnings that an attack may occur at some unspecified time at some unidentified location do not permit the IDF to respond to the specific attack at the specific time that actually occurred.
Hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20.
I think this article is disingenuous. There are always warning, dozens of them. Most do not come to fruition. It is impossible to track all of them down.
People always want to point fingers for their own reasons. After Hamas is defanged there will be a time to look into what warnings were received with what level of proof or evidence. How many other such were received as well. That is important to improve future defense.
It would be disastrous for Bibi to fall on his sword before the war is concluded or is at the level of solidifying the removal of Hamas weapons & tunnels. Bibi would be presenting Israel as a target for Hamas to take advantage of Israel’s internal turmoil.
In the USA there are always terrorism threats, the vast majority are not shared with the public. One would have to be omniscient to know which are real and which just spin. I don’t envy the role of those who carry the weight of triaging them. I would never suggest that the people responsible could make the right call 100% of the time.
I found it!!
Here you go. No more excuses now.
“Support the emergency response to the crisis in the State of Palestine as a volunteer”
https://www.unv.org/support-emergency-response-crisis-state-palestine-volunteer
Let me know when you’re going, and I’ll do my bit on the other side of the border. We can wave to each other!
Here you go! You can thank me when you get there:
“On-site UN Volunteer assignments
Duration: Assignment duration varies between 3-12 months (with possibility of extension)
Starting date: Most emergency response assignments require availability at short notice (within 1-2 weeks)
Conditions of Service: Selected UN Volunteers are entitled to a monthly living allowance, entry lump sum, life, health and permanent disability insurance, annual leave.
For further information, refer to the Unified Conditions of Service and the Explore section of UVP.”
Complacency will get you every time.
Sounds like you’re high, out of your mind, knowing you’re helping with the genocide. What kind of an anti Semite are you anyway? I was calling your former hero out 10/7. Of course, with the women and children murdering crowd that made me an anti Semite. The thing is, you aren’t welcome to the club of anti Bibites, no genocidal cheerleaders welcome.
Two weeks BEFORE October 7 the ENTIRE country of Israel was on HIGH ALERT for the Yom Kippur holiday!
This is pure anti-Netanyahu propaganda.
Please stop posting crap like this at Free Republic.
Thank you.
“I think this article is disingenuous. There are always warning, dozens of them. Most do not come to fruition. It is impossible to track all of them down.…etc.”
I agree totally. And it doesn’t change what hamas did and what they’re continuing to do. Now hezbollah has ratcheted up
None of this changes the fact that Iran and their proxy terrorists want to rid the world of Israel and the US. Israel needs to finish them off, the US needs to help them do it and Israel and the US need to bomb the crap out of Iran’s nuclear facilities and take out the Houthis.
It’s known that Defense Minister Gallant was informed early AM October 7 by the mayor of Ofakim begging for help. Gallant’s ‘help’ didn’t come for 5 - 6 hours.
1) This is Times of Israel. I have not discerned a general pro or anti Netanyahu slant from them.
2) Note that up thread, I state my support for Likud and conservatism in Israel.
3) I just got back from 3 weeks service in the IDF. I’m hardly weak kneed on the subject.
Will you volunteer to help your side?
You can always hide behind the skirts and baby carriages there like ham ass does.
Man, you are way out there today. Why in the world would I involve myself in fighting the DC MIC warmongers and their compliant Zionist stooges half a world away when we America Firsters have more than we can handle doing it right here at home. Every one less genocidal Zionist stooge who leaves the country makes our America First battle a little easier though.
Almost 50% of the Israeli dead, and almost 50% of the Israeli hostages, were attending an outdoor music festival.
The event was guarded by private security that ran out of ammunition within the first 15 minutes, because private citizens and private security are restricted - by law - from possessing more than a certain amount of ammunition.
The music festival was 2.9 miles from the Gaza border, which was the deepest Hamas penetration into Israel during the entire invasion.
Once again - please stop posting anti-Netanyahu propaganda at Free Republic.
I follow TOI on Twitter/X closely, several times a day. The bias against Netanyahu is more subtle than the Jerusalem Post but still clear.
All media outlets in Israel are precisely like our majority of our national media outlets in America. overwhelmingly liberal.
Netanyahu can face the music after the war(s). Gantz would love nothing more that to have his chance to run the show, which is exactly why he joined and now left the War Cabinet.
The worst thing that could happen now is for Netanyahu to step down when firm resolve is necessary to avoid allowing Hamas to survive. Hezbollah is another issue that needs to be dealt with presently and with a firm hand.
Bibi is the man needed at this time, and consider that Biden and the left would love nothing more than to have him replaced. They've been encouraging this openly for months because Bibi will not capitulate to their agenda and is doing what is necessary for Israel as a whole.
And, yet, you seem to be completely unaware that the entire nation of Israel was on high alert two weeks BEFORE the attack.
Please excuse me for having zero confidence in your military and political bona fides.
You are correct. Times of Israel has been drifting Left for some time. Not as bad as JP, but even JP sometimes features op-eds by non-Leftists.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.