ed note–Just another piece in the increasingly long chain of evidence completely debunking the ‘Israel didn’t know’ nonsense, a deliberate lie crafted and spewed by the Jewish State and unfortunately, believed and re-propagated by depressingly high percentages of individuals and groups rallied around the pro-Palestinian cause.
Haaretz
Israeli intelligence agencies identified that cellphones with Israeli SIM cards were activated by Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip in the early morning hours of October 7.
This was a sign of unusual activity, which triggered a meeting of the defense establishment during those early hours. The prevailing assessment during the discussions was that it was an exercise by Hamas or, in an extreme scenario, preparation for a limited-scale hostage-taking attempt.
The Prime Minister’s Office, in response to Haaretz’s inquiry, stated that ‘Netanyahu was not aware of this until now.’
Even though the defense establishment did not anticipate the extent of the infiltration by Hamas militants, an alert was issued among security agencies about the possibility of the organization attempting an attack within Israeli territory on the eve of October 7.
The information was based on several sources that noticed alarming preparations by Hamas operatives on the other side of the border. This alert was preceded by intelligence information that further heightened concerns among various officials within the security establishment.
On the evening of Friday, October 6, senior defense officials held two urgent consultations about activity in Gaza to assess whether it indicated an intention by Hamas to infiltrate Israel.
The first phone consultation was held close to midnight. The participants included senior officials from the Shin Bet security agency’s southern department and senior officials from the Intelligence Corps. Also participating were the head of the Operations Directorate, Maj. Gen. Oded Basyuk and the head of the Southern Front Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman. Several other Southern Front Command senior officials were also part of the consultation.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzl Halevi was briefed on the warnings and the existence of the consultation. A second consultation was held at around 3 A.M. on Saturday, October 7, now with the participation of Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar.
Shin Bet officials contended that the activity detected inside Gaza was ‘only an exercise’. Intelligence Corps representatives agreed and didn’t recommend raising the country’s alertness level. Upon the recommendation of the Shin Bet and with the approval of the top military brass, no action was deemed necessary.
In the Shin Bet, the indications from Gaza were deemed ‘weak signals’ from which no sufficient insights could be drawn about any upcoming activity.
Nevertheless, there was concern at the agency over a possible isolated kidnapping attack, and a small operational team was sent to the south. No other steps were taken, and that Shin Bet team was involved in combat later in the day in one of the border communities, and several of its members were wounded. Officials agreed to wait until morning for any further decisions – when it was already too late.
In response, the IDF and the Shin Bet stated that ‘the report regarding 1,000 Israeli SIM cards being activated simultaneously is false and far from reality. In practice, a cluster of signals was received indicating, among other things, the activation of dozens of individual signals that had been turned on in previous incidents. Accordingly, the system was activated, and intelligence and operational actions were carried out on the ground.’
According to the military and the Shin Bet, ‘on the night of October 7, indicative signals were received that led to situational assessments and operational decisions. The indicative signals are based on a variety of tools and capabilities, including technological tools whose operation and methodology cannot be detailed. All events and existing information from that night will be investigated as part of the ongoing investigations conducted by the Shin Bet and the IDF.’