“The government was informed of Hamas' intentions,” Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid told a press conference Thursday morning “expressing his position for the first time” on the events that unfolded on October 7.
“It was clear what they wanted. And here I want to refute the assertion, repeated time and time again by the current administration, that somehow the political brass was unaware that Hamas was not being contained. They were certainly informed. I was informed, and the intelligence documents that I have seen, of course the prime minister and his cabinet members have seen.”
Lapid said this was not merely an afterthought: “I was not the only one to think so. Months before the tragedy, the prime minister and his cabinet members received mounting evidence from within the terrorist cell that they had been waiting for such a moment.”
He added that on August 21, 2023, during a security briefing with the Prime Minister, Military Advisor Maj. Gen. Abi Gill reported that tensions were rising in all proxy sectors, including with Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and terrorist organizations in Gaza and Judea and Samaria.
“I found this information surprising, but the Prime Minister seemed bored and uninterested in the matter (this is purely my personal impression, so please disagree) and made no comment.”
Lapid said he read several intelligence reports over the next two weeks and met with the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Security Committee.
Lapid claimed that he had access to the same intelligence materials received by members of the intelligence subcommittee and intelligence agencies because he had received permission from former prime minister, opposition leader and Knesset member Yuli Edelstein.
“I was presented with top secret intelligence documents and the meaning was very clear: Israel is at a particularly high risk level.”
Lapid went on to say that on September 18, 2023, he noticed further escalation in the intelligence report, but that it was “vague” to him.
“Israel's deterrent power had been dramatically weakened, and its enemies believed they had a rare opportunity to attack.”
Flaws in the security system
“On the eve of Yom Kippur, I feel compelled to warn the Israeli people: we are approaching a dangerous stage of a violent multi-front conflict. The heads of the security services – the Israel Defense Forces, the Israeli intelligence service, the police and the intelligence agencies – have all warned the government and the cabinet of a violent outbreak and said that it will be our children who will pay the price, and that they will have to re-enter Gaza and possibly Lebanon again.”
He concluded by saying that he did not absolve security officials from responsibility: “They were warned, but they did not act on the warning and prepare.”
“There is no excuse for this and it cannot be justified.”
Regarding the prime minister, Lapid said he could not vouch for why Netanyahu had not acted on the document, but could say that “the prime minister's most important duty is to stop everything when faced with information like this and to mobilize the entire system to thwart the threat.”
“The first duty of the Israeli prime minister is to prevent the deaths of his people,” he added.
Lapid, who has had publicly acrimonious exchanges with Netanyahu in recent months, has criticized the government's slow pace of reaching a deal with Hamas to free the hostages.
“I only care about one thing: getting the hostages back,” he told KAN in June.
This is a developing story.