Israeli opposition leader reveals Yair Lapid The head of the Israeli General Security Service (Shin BetRonen Bar warned the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu In July 2023, he was warned that war was coming but ignored the warning.
Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted Lapid as saying yesterday, during a conference on: October 7th events In the past, several security briefings were given to Netanyahu in light of the “judicial reform” project that caused major divisions in Israel, and those briefings included a warning to the prime minister of an upcoming war.
The newspaper said that the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office denied that it had received a warning of an imminent war.
Yedioth Ahronoth quoted a statement from the office as saying, “The prime minister did not receive a warning about the war in Gaza on the date mentioned and not before October 7. On the contrary, all security officials made it clear that Hamas Movement It was deterred and is seeking to reach an agreement. The Shin Bet also estimated a few days before October 7 that Gaza’s stability was expected to continue for a long time.”
The newspaper said that the opposition leader met with the head of the Shin Bet on July 24, 2023, the day the Knesset voted on the so-called “reasonableness clause” to limit the authority of the Supreme Court, noting that Bar had met with Netanyahu the day before the vote and warned him of a looming war.
Yedioth Ahronoth quoted Lapid as saying that Bar’s assessment to Netanyahu was, “I am warning you that war is coming. I cannot specify a specific day and time, but this is the warning,” noting that 76 days after the security briefing, Hamas attacked Israel, and the Party ofHe launched his attack on the north after 77 days.
Lapid spoke in detail about a series of briefings he received as head of the opposition, one of them alongside Netanyahu, from the prime minister’s military secretary, Major General Avi Gil. The Israeli newspaper said that all the security officials who gave the briefings warned of regional escalation on all fronts, of a decline in Israeli deterrence, and of Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah being encouraged to move against Israel.
According to the newspaper, the main concern of the Shin Bet before the events of October 7 was summarized in two scenarios: either Hezbollah would start a war in the north and the West Bank would join it, or the West Bank would launch a third intifada and other fronts would join the war.
