Israel knew about Hamas attack over a year in advance: Report

Israel-Hamas War: The plan was “circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders” but dismissed, the report claimed.

Israeli officials reportedly saw a blueprint for Hamas’ October 7 attack more than a year before it was carried out, it was reported. Israeli intelligence bosses were passed a 40-page battle plan for the attacks but dismissed it as unrealistic, the New York Times reported prompting new questions about intelligence failures over the attack that claimed 1,200 lives.

Israel-Hamas War: People walk inside a temporary refuge for displaced people as smoke rises during an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. (AFP)

The report cited a document, codenamed “Jericho Wall” which contained plans for gliders to enter Israel from Gaza. It also mentioned the use of automatic machine guns on the border and drones to eliminate security cameras- methods that were used by Hamas on October 7 which overwhelmed Israel and resulted in the kidnapping of civilians.

The plan was “circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders” but dismissed as aspirational and beyond the capabilities of Hamas, the report claimed.

“It is not yet possible to determine whether the plan has been fully accepted and how it will be manifested,” a military assessment noted as per the report. If the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) had taken action to prevent the tactics from being deployed on October 7, the attack could have been foiled, it added.

The Israeli military’s Gaza division concluded last year that Hamas had “decided to plan a new raid, unprecedented in its scope followed by a “large-scale manoeuvre inside Israeli territory", the report claimed. Military officials were also aware of a plan to overwhelm the Israeli border wall. The Jericho Wall document quoted the Quran, “Surprise them through the gate. If you do, you will certainly prevail", it further claimed.

This comes as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing questions over the failure of the country's intelligence services - which are among the most sophisticated in the world. The premier had initially blamed his military and intelligence chiefs in a tweet, before deleting them amid political backlash.

On why he had failed to prevent the attacks, the Israeli PM told ABC News, “It’s a very good question, because the first task of government is to protect the people and, clearly, we didn’t live up to that. We had a big, big setback.”