Jerusalem

Even as questions are being raised over Israel’s apparent intelligence failure, a senior Egyptian intelligence officer has claimed that the country’s security agencies downplayed the repeated “warnings” Cairo had issued over Hamas’s potential strike.

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The official, whose identity has not been revealed, told AP news agency that the Israeli officials focused on the West Bank and ignored the threat that “something big” was being planned from Gaza.

The majority of the supporters of Benjamin Netanyahu's government comprise Jewish settlers in the West Bank. They had demanded the government to crack down on rising tensions in the region for the last 18 months.

Egypt, which has historically acted as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, had communicated to Israel about the threat multiple times, the official claimed, adding “but they underestimated”.

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“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 unnamed official was quoted as saying.

Israel responds 

However, Israel’s Prime Minister's Office categorically dismissed the official’s claims as “totally fake news”.

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“The report to the effect that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a message in advance from Egypt is absolutely false,” the prime minister’s office tweeted.

“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 development comes at a time when Israeli security agencies, who were caught off guard by attacks, are scrambling to crack down on the Hamas terror group.

Media seeks answers 

Several local media have also raised questions about security agencies' apparent failure in pre-empting the terror attacks.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that neither the Israeli Defence Force nor the Israel Security Agency — commonly known as the Shin Bet — issued any warnings that the terrorist organisation was about to launch the assault.

Also read | Hamas slammed for threatening to televise the killing of captive Israelis

Last week, senior IDF and defence ministry officials publicly said that Hamas was not particularly interested in open conflict, the outlet reported.

Also read | Defence shares soar amid Israel-Hamas conflict

“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.”

(With inputs from agencies)

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