The IDF acknowledged the possibility that it saw signs of the Hamas attack, but only in the hours just before it happened.
IDF spokesman Brigadier General Daniel Hagari, while giving a briefing in the morning, admitted that “hours before the attack there were signs, not of an attack of the intensity it was.”
There is no way to know at this time what exactly happened as no details as to what the “signs” were have been provided.
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The IDF forces could have thought this was going to be another mass demonstration of people by the fence on the Gaza side – with gunfire and other explosions – as had occurred a number of times in the preceding weeks.
Also, there was no implication that anyone in the IDF had any idea that Hamas had tunnels that could reach into the many kibbutzim that were devastated.
This only means that just before the attack they saw “signs” that Hamas might strike at the IDF positions along the border fence and not to areas deeper in Israel.
According to Israel’s Channel 13 news, sources said “something is happening around the fence” before the attack, but had no more details.
The IDF spokesman did say that the IDF will, of course, hold assessments of its failures once the fighting is over saying, “We will interrogate ourselves. We will give answers to the public after we finish the war.”
People in Israel at this precarious time should avoid listening to rumors and innuendo.
Many reports made over the first 48 hours of the crisis proved to be false.
On Wednesday night, the entire northern part of Israel was shutdown with people forced into bomb shelters after sirens sounded. Fears of a Hezbollah infiltration led to mass hysteria that there were actual sightings of drones or hang gliders like the ones used by Hamas on Saturday.
But after about an hour at around 9 PM local time the IDF confirmed that the alarm that sounded in the north of Israel was a false alarm, the result if a technical problem and that there was no security situation.
There was no aerial incursion from Lebanon.