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Israel had Hamas attack plan year before Oct. 7 invasion, but officials dismissed as ‘imaginative’: report

By
Katherine Donlevy
Published Nov. 30, 2023, 9:57 p.m. ET

Israeli authorities acquired Hamas battle plans outlining the terrorist group’s bloody Oct. 7 attack a year before it happened — but Israeli military and intelligence officials brushed aside what was deemed a “totally imaginative” plan impossible to carry out, according to a report.

The 40-page blueprint — dubbed the “Jericho Wall” by Israeli officials — mapped out major details of the invasion that led to the deadliest day in Israel’s history, but did not specify a date for when such an attack would be launched, the New York Times reported Thursday, citing documents, emails and interviews.

Israeli officials leafed through the 40-page document just three months before the terror attack that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people in Israel and the kidnapping of another 240.

“Surprise them through the gate. If you do, you will certainly prevail,” the top of the document states — a quote from the Quran that Hamas has widely repeated since the attack.

The plans included a barrage of rockets to force Israeli soldiers into bunkers and drones to knock out security cameras — tactics used in the Oct. 7 invasion.

The translated documents also detailed 60 points in the border wall between Gaza and Israel where hundreds of Hamas fighters streamed out for the attacks.

The location and size of Israeli military forces, communication hubs and other sensitive information were additionally mentioned in the plan, the Times reported.

Officials would not say how they obtained the Jericho Wall document, but records show it was widely circulated among Israeli military and intelligence leaders over the last year, most of whom dismissed the expansive plans as beyond Hamas’ capabilities.

This image from video provided by South First Responders shows charred and damaged cars along a desert road after an attack by Hamas militants at the Tribe of Nova Trance music festival
Israeli officials had a detailed blueprint of Hamas’ plans of attack more than a year before the terror group invaded. AP

At least one veteran analyst with Unit 8200, Israel’s signals intelligence agency, warned in July that the terrorist group had been conducting a training exercise that mirrored “the content of Jericho Wall,” including shooting down Israeli aircraft, taking over a military training base and killing its cadets.

Her concerns were shot down by a colonel in the Gaza division, the entity tasked with patrolling the border, who said it was part of a “totally imaginative” scenario, not an indication of Hamas’s ability to pull it off before telling the analyst to “wait patiently.”

a man holding a weapon grabs another man next to a car during an attack by Hamas militants at the Tribe of Nova Trance music festival
The “Jericho Wall” documents mapped out the sophisticated attack, including location and size of Israeli military forces. AP

“I utterly refute that the scenario is imaginary,” the analyst wrote in encrypted email exchanges viewed by The Times.

“It is a plan designed to start a war,” she added. “It’s not just a raid on a village.”

Follow along with The Post’s live blog for the latest on Hamas’ attack on Israel

The analyst compared the training exercises to the 1973 war, in which Syrian and Egyptian armies overran Israeli defenses before Israel was able to regroup and repel the invasion — an intelligence failure long taught to Israeli security officials.

“We already underwent a similar experience 50 years ago on the southern front in connection with a scenario that seemed imaginary, and history may repeat itself if we are not careful,” the analyst wrote in the emails.

Palestinians visit their houses destroyed in the Israeli bombings in Al-Zahra, on the outskirts of Gaza City, on Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023.
Palestinians visit their houses destroyed in the Israeli bombings in Al-Zahra, on the outskirts of Gaza City. AP

Israeli officials have privately conceded that they catastrophically failed to thwart the bloody Oct. 7 attack.

In September 2016, the Israeli defense minister’s office compiled a top-secret memo outlining Hamas’ strengthening forces, as well as the mass purchasing of weapons, GPS jammers and drones.

An invasion and hostage-taking would “lead to severe damage to the consciousness and morale of the citizens of Israel,” then-defense minister Avigdor Lieberman said in the note.

Another plan, obtained after Israelis recovered the Jericho Wall, showed that Hamas had “decided to plan a new raid, unprecedented in its scope” that involved a “large-scale maneuver” aimed at overwhelming the Gaza division.

The Israeli military called the plan a “compass,” signifying their doubt Hamas was capable of carrying out such an attack.

Israel and Hamas agreed Thursday to pause fighting for another day, marking the seventh day without battle.

Over 100 hostages have since been released as the truce is scheduled to lift at 7 a.m. local time Friday, unless another deal can be reached.

Both sides agreed to release a portion of its hostages under the arrangement.

More than 14,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including many women and children, have been killed in the conflict, according to data from the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.