Foreign Affairs

Israel Ignored Warnings About Hamas’ Surprise Attack, Egyptian Official Says

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Israel ignored warnings about Hamas’ plans to conduct a surprise attack, an Egyptian intelligence official said, according to the Associated Press.

Israel was focused on the West Bank while war ensued in Gaza, according to the official. Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel’s border from Gaza on Saturday, killing, kidnapping and raping hundreds of Israelis.

“We have warned them an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big. But they underestimated such warnings,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to publicly speak of the intelligence, said, according to the AP.

Much of Israel’s attention has been paid to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul and the division it created within the country, contributing to the country being caught in a surprise attack, according to the AP. Israelis living in the West Bank, who support Netanyahu, had been calling for an increase in security in the area.

“That roiled the IDF in a way that was, I think, we discovered was a huge distraction,” Martin Indyk, a special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations during the Obama administration, said, according to the AP.