An Israeli intelligence brief prepared weeks before Hamas’s October 7 attack had warned military officials of the Palestinian group’s preparations for an assault, according to Israeli public broadcaster Kan.
Plans to attack military bases and settlements and to take up to 250 hostages, including women and children, were set out in a document distributed within the Gaza Division of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on September 19, the Kan report said.
The report came from the highly regarded Unit 8200, an IDF unit responsible for collecting intelligence, but had apparently been ignored by senior officers.
The unprecedented Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of roughly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 251 people hostage, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 41 the army says are dead.
The worst-case scenario being considered was that a few dozen terrorists could enter Israel at three points.
The IDF had relied on the border defences reaching deep into the ground, but everything had collapsed on October 7, a Kan military correspondent reported.
“The security system at the time was working towards pacification of the Gaza Strip, by means of improving living conditions for the civilian population, work permits for Palestinians and the lifting of restrictions on goods,” the correspondent said.
Israeli politicians have rebuffed calls for a thorough investigation into intelligence failures surrounding the Hamas attack, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted any official probe should wait until after the war.
The Israeli military however said it was “investigating the events” of October 7, with a probe being “actively carried out” and would later be made public.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive since October 7 has killed more than 37,000 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.