Newsletters
Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Sunday that Israeli intelligence agencies misread a message he said had reached the country indirectly from Hamas before the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, as opposition leader Yair Golan renewed calls for a state inquiry into the government's handling of warnings before the assault.
Speaking to Army Radio, Gallant said the message came through Israel's Shin Bet domestic security agency and warned that Hamas would "shake the prisons." He did not detail how the message was transmitted.
According to Gallant, both the Shin Bet and the military's Aman intelligence directorate assessed the message at the time as connected to the abduction of Israeli researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who had been held in Iraq. Tsurkov was released in September 2025.
The comments follow a report by Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 last Tuesday saying that former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had sent an unusual message to Israel weeks before Oct. 7, cautioning of an expected "earthquake in the prisons" tied to the issue of Palestinian detainees. That report did not name the intermediary said to have delivered the message.
Golan, who leads the opposition Democrats party, wrote on social media platform X that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had received "every warning in the world" ahead of Oct. 7 but "chose to dismiss them."
Referring to prior reporting by The New York Times and Israel's Haaretz newspaper, Golan said intelligence pointing to a possible Hamas attack had reached Netanyahu directly, adding that regional leaders had personally contacted the prime minister and that intelligence officials had laid out the seriousness of the threat to him.
Golan further alleged that Netanyahu had weakened the Palestinian Authority and sidelined officials who tried to raise alarm over an "impending disaster."
"The first decision we make in the next government will be to establish a state commission of inquiry into the failures of all the systems, foremost among them Netanyahu," Golan said, arguing the public had a right to know the full account of events.
Netanyahu has so far declined calls to convene a state commission of inquiry into the events of Oct. 7, 2023. His office has separately denied a Haaretz report alleging that the president of the United Arab Emirates warned him of an imminent large-scale Hamas operation days before the attack.
The Oct. 7, 2023 attack was followed by an Israeli military offensive across the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 74,000 people and injured around 175,000 others, leaving much of the territory in ruins.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
1 min read
