Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received four warning letters between March and July 2023 from the Intelligence Division concerning how Israel’s "enemies" perceived the societal divides in the State of Israel and their effect on Israel and the IDF in particular, the IDF confirmed on Thursday.
The information was obtained in response to a Freedom of Information request by the "Success" movement.
The prime minister's office later on Thursday denied that these letters warned of an impending attack by Hamas. "Not only is there no warning in any of the documents about Hamas's intentions to attack Israel from Gaza, but they actually contain completely opposite assessments," the statement said.
"The two mentions of Hamas in the four documents state that Hamas does not want to attack Israel from Gaza and is inclined toward an agreement. In the first mention from March 19, 2023, it is written that Hamas's strategy is to 'keep the Gaza Strip on a back burner' and to focus the struggle against Israel in other arenas.
The office's response also discusses what was included in the second warning on May 31, 2023, saying that in this letter it was recommended that Israel take steps to "reach an agreement with Gaza and the Hamas authorities." The letter, according to the prime minister's office, stated that "Hamas is not interested in escalation and seeks an agreement with Israel."
According to the prime minister's office, "Regarding the claim made in the documents about the negative impact of the lack of cohesion in Israel on our enemies - the Prime Minister himself has warned about this many times in relation to the phenomenon of refusal to serve." The office cited a July 17, 2023 statement, where Netanyahu said that the internal conflicts "erodes deterrence against our enemies, who could easily be tempted to commit acts of aggression against us."
Statement published to X
Within the first month of the war, the Prime Minister claimed that he had not received any alerts regarding any threat to the state’s security before the October 7 attack.
He then published a statement on X, formerly Twitter, on October 29, 2023, after making a joint statement with Minister-without-portfolio Benny Gantz and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on the evening of October 28.
"Contrary to the false claims: Under no circumstances and at no stage was Prime Minister Netanyahu warned of war intentions on the part of Hamas. On the contrary, all the security officials, including the head of the Security Council and the head of the Shin Bet, estimated that Hamas was deterred," Netanyahu wrote on X, in a later deleted post.
The post sparked controversy and was deleted the next morning. That evening, Netanyahu made another official statement, reiterating that he had not received any prior warnings from high-level security personnel.
"Success," which obtained this information, is a movement that has committed itself to promoting civil enforcement in Israel and encouraging effective and advanced regulation in the economy and society, according to its website.
In March, Brigadier-General Amit Sa'ar, head of the research division of the Intelligence Branch of the IDF, revealed in an interview with KAN News that he wrote an emergency warning letter about a potential attack on Israel that was meant to be sent to the prime minister and members of the national security cabinet after Simchat Torah.
Sa'ar said that he warned that Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah recognized an opportunity to attack Israel, according to information gathered by the Intelligence Division. The warning was reportedly able to reach IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi.
Sa'ar claimed that in his letter, he wrote that these terror organizations believed there was an opportunity for attack due to internal conflict in Israel, as well as the level of readiness of the IDF at the time.
The letter was not sent to the prime minister and other officials before October 7.