Maj. Gen. (res.) Avi Gil, former military secretary to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, revealed new details in an interview with Channel 12 News regarding the hours leading up to the October 7 Hamas attack, the warnings conveyed to the Prime Minister in the preceding months, and an alleged attempt to alter the official record of one of the first telephone conversations held that morning.
Gil, who was serving as military secretary at the time of the attack, said that at 3:55 a.m., an intelligence officer in the military secretariat received a message regarding suspicious activity in the Gaza Strip.
According to Gil, the information reached the relevant intelligence channels, including the military secretariat in the Prime Minister's Office, but the wording did not indicate an immediate threat.
"The message used the words 'routine' or 'not unusual' multiple times," he recalled, adding that the message indicated further security assessments would take place later that day. Consequently, the intelligence officer decided not to wake him.
"He made a professional, considered decision not to wake me because, from his perspective, there was no urgency," Gil explained.
Gil was awakened at 6:12 a.m. by a telephone call from the office head for Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, who asked him to switch to a secure line.
"I asked him, 'Can't we talk here?' He told me, 'No.' I remember asking him one more question: 'What's this about?' And he answered with one word: 'South.'"
During the secure conversation, Gil was briefed on suspicious developments, including the activation of SIM cards and senior Hamas officials moving into underground facilities. However, he was also told that other indications suggested the activity might still be routine.
According to Gil, he was informed that Bar had ordered a "Tequila" tactical unit to be dispatched to southern Israel, but he was not presented with an assessment that a full-scale attack was imminent.
At 6:22 a.m., Gil called the office of the IDF Chief of Staff to obtain an additional situation report. During that conversation, rocket sirens across southern Israel began flashing on his phone.
Gil immediately called Netanyahu and woke him.
"I told him, 'Prime Minister, Hamas has launched very extensive rocket fire. I'm connecting this to the intelligence I received over the phone ten minutes ago. My assessment is that Hamas has launched a large-scale surprise attack.'"
At 6:40 a.m., the two held a second conversation over a secure line. "I told the Prime Minister, 'We are at war,'" Gil recalled. Netanyahu arrived at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv at 8:45 a.m.
Gil rejected allegations that senior security officials had deliberately withheld information from the Prime Minister on the night before the attack.
"Was there a failure? Was the interpretation of the facts wrong? Unequivocally, yes. Do I believe, based on the information and facts I know, that anyone deliberately concealed or withheld information? That is a lie."
One of the most serious allegations Gil raised during the interview concerned an alleged attempt to alter the official record of his conversation with Netanyahu on the morning of the attack.
According to Gil, as early as late October 2023, approximately two to three weeks after the outbreak of the war, he learned of unusual efforts to collect official records and transcripts in the Prime Minister's Office.
"Several people approached me and told me there was an unusual effort underway to collect official records," he said. Following these reports, Gil contacted the Attorney General to request clarification on the procedures governing access to official records.
He stated that in January 2024, one of the stenographers approached him and reported that Netanyahu's chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, had instructed her to alter the recorded time of the conversation.
"She was instructed to retrieve the transcript of that 6:40 a.m. telephone conversation and change the time from 6:40 to 6:29," Gil said. Asked who issued the instruction, he replied: "The chief of staff."
According to Gil, the stenographer explained that the conversation had been recorded and that the system contained the original timestamps. Nevertheless, she was asked to alter the written record.
"That is altering a transcript. That is altering the truth," Gil said, adding that he informed the Attorney General about the incident in a handwritten note. He noted that the attempt to change the timestamp was discovered before the alteration could be finalized.
"There was an attempt to change it, because we caught it. Factually, this is a serious incident."
Gil recommended that any future commission of inquiry examine more than just the written transcripts. "Don't rely solely on the transcripts. Demand the original recordings. Listen to them."
Shelly Meshel-Yogev, mother of Libi Cohen Meguri, who was murdered at the Nova music festival, responded forcefully to the revelations: "How is it possible that law enforcement authorities have known for years about the alteration of official records in the Prime Minister's Office, and no one has been arrested to this day? This is criminal!"
Shir Matias, whose parents Shahar and Shlomi were murdered at Kibbutz Holit on October 7, also reacted to the interview: "The testimony tonight by former military secretary Avi Gil breaks my heart. If Netanyahu had listened to the security establishment and its recommendations to eliminate the Hamas leadership, my parents would still be alive today. Instead, Netanyahu and his team are busy rewriting history and altering official records. The fact that no one has been prosecuted to this day is criminal negligence."