Kamel was reportedly aghast at Netanyahu’s passivity upon hearing the report.
An Egyptian intelligence official on Monday said his country had warned the Jewish state, Israel, repeatedly about “something big” happening shortly.
The Time of Israel reports that Abbas Kamel, the powerful head of Egyptian intelligence, said he warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 10 days before the attack.
Kamel was reportedly aghast at Netanyahu’s passivity upon hearing the report.
According to the report; the official said Israeli officials had been focused on their struggles in the West Bank and played down the threat from the militant group in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is made up of supporters of West Bank settlers who have demanded a crackdown in the face of a rising tide of violence in the area over the last 18 months.
“We have warned them an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big. But they underestimated such warnings,” the Egyptian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press.
Israel was caught flat-footed in the lead-up to the assault by Hamas, whose terrorists broke through border barriers to launch a brazen attack that has so far killed at least 800 people and wounded over 2,000, with the numbers expected to climb.
“This is a major failure,” said Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Netanyahu. “This operation actually proves that the (Israeli intelligence) abilities in Gaza were no good.”
He declined to offer an explanation for the failure, saying lessons must be learned when the military operation achieves its immediate goals.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the IDF’s chief military spokesman, acknowledged that the army owed the public an explanation, but said now was not the time.
“First, we fight, then we investigate,” he said.