For several months, officials from Israel’s Shin Bet warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that ongoing domestic upheaval linked to his policy decisions was weakening the country’s overall stability. The cautions centered on security concerns, yet those messages did not steer the prime minister away from his political approach. This assessment appears in reporting by the New York Times.
The article notes that the Middle East’s most formidable military force not only underestimated the scale of the Hamas assault but also faltered in gathering reliable intelligence. Officials cited hubris and the belief that Hamas represented a contained threat as key factors behind the intelligence failures.
According to the report, on July 24, when parliament passed a controversial judicial reform package that ignited widespread protests, two senior generals urged lawmakers to issue urgent warnings about the state of national security.
Aharon Haliv, who leads the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate, submitted confidential briefings indicating that civil unrest was eroding the nation’s defenses. One document suggested that leaders in Iran, Hamas, Syria, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad believed the moment to strike had arrived.
The article also describes a scene in which only two members of parliament attended Haliv’s briefing. Netanyahu reportedly declined to meet with Chief of the General Staff General Herzi Halevi, who sought to relay these early alarms to the prime minister.
Earlier reporting indicated Israeli Army tanks were seen in the Gaza Strip on the afternoon of October 30, just as the situation on the ground intensified.
Hamas had remarked that foreign hostages might be freed “when conditions permit,” a statement that added to the tension surrounding the unfolding crisis. The overall narrative emphasizes a disconnect between intelligence assessments, political leadership decisions, and the rapid evolution of events on the ground, as described in contemporary coverage of the crisis. (Attribution: New York Times)