Israel Hayom's political reporter Shirit Avitan Cohen said today (Monday) that she recently sent queries to security officials after she learned about the presense of an Iranian organization in the Gaza Strip.
Avitan-Cohen said in an interview with Galei Israel Radio: "I'm eating myself up over one thing. For two weeks now a friend with sources in the Mossad has been writing to me, 'Check what's happening in Gaza. Send queries about Iranian organization. Check what this gathering in Beirut with the Iranians was about.'"
She said that she sent queries to the ISA, to the Defense Minister, to state sources, and to the National Security Council, "and no one knows anything. It's a mind-blowing event."
News anchor Yotam Zamari asked: "You mean someone at the Mossad knew?" And Avitan-Cohen answered, "Yes, there were preliminary signs and these questions will be examined."
Ten days before the surprise attack by Hamas that opened the war on the Gaza border, an Egyptian intelligence official warned a senior Israeli official that "something big" was about to happen on the part of the terrorist organization in Gaza, according to AP.
According to the report, the Egyptian source claimed that Israel was focused on the intensification of terrorism in Judea and Samaria and therefore did not think that there was a more significant threat than usual from Hamas in Gaza.
The Prime Minister's Office has denounced the report of an Egyptian source as completely false. "The report to the effect that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a message in advance from Egypt is absolutely false. No message in advance has arrived from Egypt and the Prime Minister has neither spoken, nor met, with the head of Egyptian intelligence since the formation of the government, neither directly nor indirectly. This is totally fake news."
An Egyptian state source insisted, in response, that Egyptian intelligence warned Israel several days prior to the attack.
"We warned them that this was a situation that would explode very soon and that could be a major and significant security event - but they underestimated the value of our warnings," added the source.