The IDF confirmed today (Thursday) that the Military Intelligence Directorate warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu four times in 2023 about how Israel's enemies were viewing the divisions that arose in Israeli society over the judicial reforms his government pursued.
In a letter to the Hatzlacha (Victory) NGO, the IDF Spokesperson stated, “During 2023, between March and July, four different warning letters were passed by the intelligence directorate, which showed how Israel’s enemies across theaters viewed the harm to cohesion in the State of Israel and the IDF in particular.
Hatzlacha said that the letter was written in response to a freedom of information request the organization submitted seven months ago, soon after the October 7 massacre.
In late October, Netanyahu published a tweet denying that he had received warnings about the possibility of a war. “Contrary to the false claims: Under no circumstances and at no stage was Prime Minister Netanyahu warned of Hamas’s war intentions,” the tweet read.
“On the contrary, all the security officials, including the head of military intelligence and the head of the Shin Bet, assessed that Hamas had been deterred and was looking for a settlement. This assessment was submitted again and again to the prime minister and the cabinet by all the security forces and intelligence community, up until the outbreak of the war.”
Netanyahu later apologized for the tweet and deleted it.
The Prime Minister's Office rejected the military's claim that the Prime Minister was warned on several occasions about the risks arising from the societal risks and that "our enemies see the damage to the unity of the country."
"The claim that the prime minister supposedly received a warning from the research division of the Military Intelligence Directorate about a possible attack from Gaza is the opposite of the truth. Not only is there no warning in any of the documents about Hamas' intentions to attack Israel from Gaza, but they gave a completely opposite assessment," it was stated.
