Hamas attacked Israel in 2023. Tel Aviv knew about the plan a year and a half before

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of General Staff Eyal Zamir on Thursday ordered an investigation into Tel Aviv's actions regarding the Hamas militant movement's plan known as the "Walls of Jericho." It was obtained by intelligence officers as early as the spring of 2022, a year and a half before the first attack by Palestinian militants on southern Israel.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas, in coordination with other militant groups, attacked the territory of the Jewish state "along the entire border" of the Palestinian enclave on the Mediterranean coast, according to the plan.

The team of investigators will be led by retired General Roni Numa, who previously commanded the IDF Central Command and was convicted in the attack that killed a Palestinian civilian, Haaretz newspaper reports. The officers are to additionally review a report by General Sami Turgeman, who revealed in February that the IDF's preparations in the face of attacks on southern Israel were "totally inadequate."

Turgeman's report described the army's procedures as outdated, inappropriate for the field or not in line with Hamas' anticipated moves. Based on these findings, Defense Minister Yisrael Katz last week issued an order suspending the promotion of officers pending a final investigation.

The prominent Jerusalem Post expressed surprise that it was Zamir who announced the investigation - after all, he was the one who commanded IDF Southern Command units between 2015 and 2018, the time of the first intelligence shards that later pieced together the mosaic of the Walls of Jericho report.

Did Israel know about the attack?

The New York Times claims that Hamas's plans were known to the Israeli army 18 months before the infamous 7th of October. Its sources in the IDF or the US military and security services confirmed this information as recently as November 2023.

According to intelligence sources in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv dismissed the Wall of Jericho plan as "overly ambitious" because it was deemed "too difficult to implement" under Hamas direction. Although the 40-page document did not set any exact date, the militants' various actions in the first hours of the attack almost exactly met the points outlined in the plan.

The plan, according to the newspaper, "also included details about the location and size of Israeli military forces, communications centers and other sensitive information, raising questions about how Hamas gathered its intelligence and whether there were leaks within the Israeli security forces."

"The document called for a rocket attack at the start of the assault, the use of drones to disable security cameras and automatic machine guns along the border, and a mass incursion into Israel by armed men on paragliders, motorbikes and on foot," the NYT listed.

Even in a report picked up by the Standard just two weeks after the attack itself, the authors marveled at the "highly organized and meticulously planned operation" that "proves that (Hamas) deeply understands Israel's weaknesses."

The militants had meticulously crafted maps that showed them advancing through Israeli outposts and kibbutzim, as well as through the area where the Nova festival was being held. The total tally that day was more than 1 200 murdered and 251 kidnapped - the last remnants of this 'harvest' are still in the Gaza Strip today.

In 2022, the IDF's southern sector was commanded by Major General Eliezer Toledano, who, in his own words in January 2024 , warned his superiors that the Walls of Jericho existed and that Hamas was indeed about to act on this plan. According to Kan News TV, he even had his own counterattack plan.

Recall that the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk expressed similar concerns. On the Patrick Bet-David show, he openly questioned why the IDF did not respond to the attack for six whole hours. "I've been to Israel, and let me tell you, it's a fortress," he noted, adding that "it's impossible not to encounter a 19-year-old soldier with an AR-15 rifle every 10 minutes on the Gaza border."

He also added that Netanyahu "threatened a civil war" that never started due to the state of emergency. "Was there an order to lay down arms?" Kirk asked. He also added his personal experience that the helicopter ride from Jerusalem to the enclave's border takes 45 minutes, yet Hamas militants broadcast the murder of Jews live for six hours.

The road to unfreedom

It would not be the first time Netanyahu's opponents have accused him of overreach or authoritarian aspirations. Through the Qatargate scheme, his government funnelled money to the emirate to fund Hamas, even though the latter is on Israel's list of terrorist organisations. The prime minister is also on trial for allegedly bribing the media and misappropriating public funds.

One of the biggest attempts to interfere with the constitutional set-up of the Jewish state has been the so-called overhaul of the judiciary. Several times prime minister, he tried to push through a law under which the Ministry of Justice would oversee the appointment of Supreme Court judges.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miarova has also recently become a target of "Bibi's" attempts to unify the authorities under the wing of his security cabinet. She has been accused by Netanyahu's supporters of "politicizing" the trials. The prosecutor responded that it is within her authority to interpret existing laws.

Netanyahu's supporters attacked the ousted Shin Bet intelligence chief in equal measure. Commander Ronen Bar was to figure as a witness in the aforementioned Qatargate case, in which interns from the prime minister's office funneled Qatari investments to the Gaza Strip through Israeli shipyards - and for a hefty bribe to the Likud party.

The conflict between the government, the courts, the prosecution and the security services has made the army probably the last institution that enjoys any public trust. If it proves to have failed fatally before the proverbial 7 October, it may not be long now.