Prime Minister Netanyahu has spent the election campaign blaming everyone else for allowing the Oct. 7, 2023 attack to happen. And his opponents have repeatedly pointed to his being informed of the assault at 6:29 a.m., yet spending at least two hours before leaving his Caesarea home to head to IDF’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv, and not ordering the Gaza border closed until 9:55 a.m. However, the discussion broadened significantly today.
Haaretz published the story this morning of Netanyahu receiving and ignoring the warning from Hamas, some 10 days prior to the 2023 attack. The warning had been delivered to him by the President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ). Israel went into an uproar today, and Netanyahu’s political opponents labelled him a criminal.
In brief, months of negotiations over a prisoner exchange had been conducted in 2023 by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, via his representative Ghazi Hamada, a senior Fatah go-between referred to as “Coal Eyes” who is fluent in Hebrew, and Shin Bet’s Adi Rotem would call in to the two men. Haaretz related that the deal was virtually completed that summer, but that Netanyahu repeatedly delayed.
Sinwar, according to a senior Shin Bet official, “vanished from our radar, evaporated.” Then Sinwar met privately with Coal Eyes and told him to relay his ultimatum: “Tell the Israelis if they don’t advance [on the exchange], I’m preparing a huge surprise for them. Tell them to expect a zilzal, an earthquake.”
Coal Eyes took the message to MBZ, who was informed: “If he says zilzal, he means war.” MBZ sought confirmation first and Coal Eyes provided Sinwar’s renewed confirmation that he was planning “a formidable operation... the mother of all surprises. A terrifying operation. Something extraordinary.”
