Egypt warned Israel that Hamas was planning a surprise attack three days before the terrorist group launched its horrific assault that saw hundreds of innocent civilians butchered.
According to Egyptian intelligence, Hamas was likely planning the attacks for up to a year.
Egypt says that it had repeatedly warned Israel of Hamas’s surprise attack in the weeks leading up to the assault but the warnings were ignored.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office blasted reports of the Egyptian warning as “fake news” in a Monday post on Twitter/X.
However, Republican Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, has now said that Egypt alerted Israel about Hamas’s plans “three days” before the assault was launched last Saturday.
In a Wednesday statement, McCaul confirmed what Egyptian intelligence has previously said and contradicted Netanyahu’s claims.
McCaul said officials are trying to ascertain how Israel could have missed the warning.
“There seems to have been an intelligence failure,” McCaul said.
“We’re not quite sure how we missed it.
“We’re not quite sure how Israel missed it.”
McCaul had just received a closed-door briefing for an update on the crisis from Biden administration officials before he issued the statement.
“We know Egypt had warned the Israelis three days prior that an event like this could happen,” McCaul confirmed.
“We know this has been planned perhaps as long as a year ago.”
WATCH:
"I don't know how we missed it, I don't know how Israel missed it – I know that Egypt warned Israel three days before the attack": the words of Michael McCaul, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the American House of Representatives pic.twitter.com/Df0ZvgDTTn
— intheMatrixxx (@intheMatrixxx) October 12, 2023
Netanyahu’s office blasted the reports about the warning as “fake news.”
“The report to the effect that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a message in advance from Egypt is absolutely false,” the PM’s office account tweeted on Monday.
“No message in advance has arrived from Egypt and the Prime Minister has neither spoken, nor met, with the head of Egyptian intelligence since the formation of the government, neither directly nor indirectly.
“This is totally fake news.”
When asked where the confirmation about the warning had come from, McCaul said that the intelligence was out there.
“I don’t want to get too into classifieds but a warning was given, I think the question is at what level,” he said.
In the wake of the attacks, allies who share intelligence with Israel said security agencies were misreading reality.
An Egyptian intelligence official said Egypt, which often serves as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, had spoken repeatedly with the Israelis about a looming attack.
The official told the Associated Press news agency that Cairo had repeatedly warned the Israelis that “something big” was being planned from Gaza.
“We have warned them an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“But they underestimated such warnings.”
More than 1,500 militants stormed through the Gaza security barrier in a coordinated land, air, and sea attack on Saturday.
The death toll in Israel from the Hamas attacks has reached 1,200.
Hamas has, meanwhile, condemned Democrat President Joe Biden’s remarks on Tuesday.
Biden said Israel had a duty to respond to the attacks, which he called an “act of sheer evil.”
The terrorist group said Biden’s remarks were “inflammatory” and aimed to escalate tensions in the Gaza Strip.
In the wake of the Hamas attack, the US has moved an aircraft carrier, ships, and jets to the eastern Mediterranean.
America is also providing Israel with additional equipment and ammunition.
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