Israeli intelligence agencies received the battle plan of the Palestinian group Hamas that was used in the October 7 invasion more than a year before it took place, but did not take it seriously, considering it too complex to implement.
Source. This was reported by the New York Times, which obtained the relevant documents.
The 40-page document, codenamed "The Wall of Jericho," describes step by step the invasion that took place on October 7 and led to the deaths of about 1,200 Israelis.
The date of the attack is not specified in the document, but it described in detail the actions necessary to overcome the fortifications around the Gaza Strip, capture Israeli cities and storm major military bases.
The plan called for rocket fire at the beginning of the attack, disabling surveillance cameras and machine guns along the border with the help of drones, and a massive invasion of Israel, including by paragliders and motorcycles. Hamas followed this plan "with shocking precision," the newspaper notes.
The document also contained detailed information about the location and number of Israeli armed forces, communication centers, and other sensitive information. This raises the question of where Hamas got the intelligence and whether it is possible to talk about a leak within the Israeli intelligence services, the newspaper notes.
The Israeli military and intelligence were well informed about this document, but, according to the NYT, their leadership did not take it seriously because they considered the likelihood of implementing such a large-scale and ambitious plan to be minimal.
It is not known whether Benjamin Netanyahu and other political leaders were familiarized with the plan.
According to the NYT, last year, shortly after receiving the document, officials from the Israeli armed forces unit in the Gaza Strip responsible for defending the border with Gaza said that Hamas' intentions were unclear.
"It is not yet possible to determine whether the plan has been fully accepted and how it will be implemented," the military assessment, which was obtained by the publication, said.
Then in July, three months before the invasion, an experienced analyst at Israel's radio intelligence agency warned that Hamas had conducted intensive one-day exercises similar to those outlined in the Jericho Wall plan.
"I categorically deny that the scenario is fictitious. This plan is designed to start a war. It is not just a raid on a village," she wrote in an email. But the colonel in the Gaza unit did not take her concerns seriously.
The Jericho Wall documentary sheds light on a years-long series of mistakes that resulted in what officials now call Israeli intelligence's greatest failure.
At the heart of all these failures was "a single, fatally flawed belief that Hamas did not have the capability to attack and would not dare to do so.
According to Israeli officials, "this belief is so ingrained in the Israeli government that they have ignored the growing body of evidence to the contrary."
Background. As reported, Israeli IDF soldiers are going to hunt for all Hamas leaders around the world. Among the targets are also the leaders of the political wing of the movement, who have been living in Qatar for about 10 years.