Israel knew about plan for Hamas attack more than year ago: NYT

(NewsNation) — Israeli officials obtained a 40-page document detailing Hamas’ plan to launch an attack on the country over a year before the militant group’s Oct. 7 incursion that killed hundreds of people, The New York Times reported Thursday.

That document, which Israeli authorities named “Jericho Wall,” detailed “point by point” a hypothetical Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities. It did not, though, give an exact date for the assault that killed 1,200 Israelis, and triggered a war in which 13,300 Palestinians have been killed after Israel bombardment.

The New York Times does not mention how it obtained this document, but did note in the article it had been translated for them. According to the New York Times, Hamas followed the “blueprint” outlined in the plan “with shocking precision.”

For example, the document called for bombarding Israel with rockets at the outset of the attack, drones to knock out security cameras and machine guns at the border, and gunmen diving into Israel in paragliders, motorcycles, and on foot. These all happened on Oct. 7, the Times said. Another Israeli defense memo The Times was able to get from 2016 states that Hamas intended to take hostages back to Gaza — which they also did Oct. 7.

New York Times said the document “described a methodical assault designed to overwhelm the fortifications around the Gaza Strip, take over Israeli cities and storm key military bases, including a division headquarters.”

Although the Jericho Wall was circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders, the New York Times wrote that they determined an attack like this was beyond Hamas’ capabilities. To them, the plan had been “aspirational,” and not something they thought could actually happen, according to the newspaper.

The New York Times added that it’s not clear if Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other top political leaders saw this document, though.

If officials had taken the warnings seriously and redirected reinforcements to the area Hamas attacked, Israel could have blunted, or even possibly prevented them, officials privately conceded, per the New York Times.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the report, saying that there will be a time and place for accountability — a similar sentiment to what Netanyahu has been saying.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, talking to reporters during his third visit to Israel Friday, said there’s going to be “plenty of opportunity for a full accounting on Oct. 7.”

“Right now, the focus is on making sure (Israel) can do everything possible to ensure that it doesn’t happen again, to make sure that civilians are protected, to make sure that humanitarian aide gets (to Gaza),” Blinken said.

There has been a lot of criticism toward the Israeli government, and Netanyahu himself, from citizens since Oct. 7 — one recent poll found 76% of Israelis say they want Netanyahu to resign, according to NPR, and other surveys show the prime minister would lose if elections were held right now.

The Associated Press notes the NYT’s report is the latest in a series of signs top Israeli commanders either ignored or downplayed warnings that Hamas was plotting the attack. A month before they attacked, the Associated Press said, Hamas posted a video on social media showing fighters using explosives to blast through a replica of the border gate, sweep in on pickup trucks and then move building by building through a full-scale reconstruction of an Israeli town as they fired automatic weapons at human-silhouetted paper targets.

Former CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon, the founder of the International Network for Aid, Relief & Assistance, compared Israel’s Jericho Wall response to America’s during 9/11.

She said there had also been intelligence circulated by a number of U.S organizations warning of a “significant and devastating attack” on U.S. soil. “The indications were there, the signs were there, but there was a massive, massive failure,” Damon said on “NewsNation Now.”

The Associated Press and NewsNation Washington Assignment Editor Nardos Mesmer contributed to this report.