Report: Netanyahu received intel of Hamas plan to invade southern Israel as early as 2018

By Ethan Rubinson

Today, 2:13 pm

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was presented with IDF intelligence reports detailing Hamas’s battle plans as early as April 2018, the Ynet news site says, citing intelligence documents and testimony from senior officials.

The report says that between 2018 and 2022, Hamas developed a comprehensive operational blueprint for a coordinated, multifront attack against Israeli military bases and civilian communities in southern Israel.

The attack plan, which was later put together in a document known as “Jericho’s Walls,” envisioned breaching the Gaza border at dozens of points and deploying thousands of fighters.

According to Ynet, Netanyahu was given intelligence about Hamas’s plans several times over the years, despite his repeated public denials that he had ever seen or heard of “Jericho’s Walls” before October 7.

The report says the earliest known transfer of the plan to Israeli leadership occurred in April 2018, when the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Research Division distributed a special intelligence document to senior officials, including the military secretaries of the prime minister and defense minister, the National Security Council, the heads of the Shin Bet and Mossad, and the IDF chief of staff’s office.

According to the documents cited by Ynet, the 2018 report asked the following question in its subheading: “Is Hamas’s military wing building its force for a broad attack deep into our territory?”

The 2018 report made sure to convey the seriousness of the threat, emphasizing that “the scope of the plan and its complexity are exceptional.”

While some analysts who contributed to the report expressed doubt that Hamas could actually carry out the plan in full, they cautioned that “the plan illustrates a new and broader threat scenario than before.”

Netanyahu has denied receiving any intelligence that Hamas was planning a major attack during the years leading up to October 7, and when questioned by State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman about it during a probe into the failures that enabled the attack, the Prime Minster’s Office said that “the prime minister never received and was never briefed on the ‘Jericho’s Walls’ document” until after the war broke out, and that he was “never presented with any Hamas plan for a mass raid into Israeli territory.”

However, Netanyahu’s own published materials appear to contradict those claims. In the 55-page document he sent to the State Comptroller’s Office last week, he acknowledged receiving the April 2018 intelligence report, but selectively quoted only the most restrained assessment, which stated that Hamas had “a basic capability to carry out several simultaneous raids,” but that due to various factors, “it is not likely at this time.”

The document omitted the paragraph’s concluding sentence, which warned that the plan signals the terror group’s future ambitions and that it intended to significantly build up its forces.

The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to requests for comment, Ynet says.

Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.