‘This was communicated at every level’: Netanyahu military aide reveals internal warnings before October 7

Avi Gil and Benjamin Netanyahu IDF/Getty Images The Middle East Israel-Hamas war See all topics Facebook Tweet Email Link Threads Link Copied! Follow In a damning interview, a former senior aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the Israeli leader was warned internally of the potential for war ahead of the October 7 attacks and that there remain “enormous gaps” between what the public knows and what really happened.

Maj. Gen. Avi Gil woke up the Israeli prime minister on the morning of the deadliest attacks in its history. His comments put fresh pressure just weeks before a critical election that will determine Netanyahu’s political future.

Speaking to Israel’s Channel 12 News, Gil, who served as Netanyahu’s military-secretary from July 2021 to May 2024, said “for weeks, documents were being submitted, and the defense establishment was describing a reality in which our enemies recognized the divisions in Israeli society – a perceived weakness – and saw Israel’s deterrence being eroded.”

Gil said there was not a specific warning about a massive attack from Gaza, but he said Israel’s security establishment understood that the country’s adversaries saw protests sweeping across the country and growing fractures within society as an opportunity.

“Did we begin to identify, within the security establishment, an erosion of deterrence and a change in the way our enemies viewed the State of Israel? The unequivocal answer is yes, and this was communicated at every level,” Gil said.

The firsthand testimony adds to a growing body of reporting that Netanyahu received warnings – both general and specific – about the possibility of a Hamas attack from Gaza in the weeks and months before October 7, 2023.

Palestinian militants move towards the Erez crossing between Israel and northern Gaza on October 7, 2023. Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/Getty Images Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported in early September that the leader of the United Arab Emirates called Netanyahu directly and warned him of a major Hamas operation just days before the attack. During the same period, Egypt’s intelligence minister personally flew to Israel to tell Netanyahu that Hamas was preparing for a major attack, the Atlantic reported.

Netanyahu denied these reports, calling the Haaretz story “an absolute lie.”

Gil’s account is different because it comes from inside the highest levels of the Israeli government. As Netanyahu’s military aide, Gil sat in security cabinet meetings with the prime minister and had access to key communications before the start of the war.

It was Gil who called and woke Netanyahu on the morning of the attack before connecting with him over a secure “red phone.” At precisely 6:41 a.m. – 12 minutes after the Hamas-led attack began – he says he told Netanyahu unequivocally, “We are at war.”

In response to the interview, Netanyahu said in a statement, “Like others, Avi Gil knew about the impending attack and chose not to wake the prime minister in time. Gil’s interviews are attempts to obscure the simple and painful truth about the failure in his performance.”

Opposition politicians lambasted Netanyahu following the interview, calling for the Attorney General to investigate GIl’s allegations. “The truth about October 7 is not Netanyahu’s private property,” said Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s main challenger and a former Israeli military chief of staff. “The Israeli public is entitled to the full truth, a thorough examination of responsibility, and the pursuit of justice.”

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Like the head of the Israeli military unit in charge of hostage affairs, Gil said Netanyahu prioritized the stability of his own government over the return of the hostages, including hostages that would have made it home alive. Netanyahu, Gil recalled, may have been inclined to accept earlier hostage deals, but far-right ministers in his government convinced him otherwise.

“Bereaved families approach me. I sit with them. … There is a term, ‘survivors,’ which I find terrible when I am sitting across from people who have returned from that hell. And yes, you know that some of them could have come home earlier,” he said.

Gil said there are “enormous gaps” between what the Israeli public knows of what happened before and after October 7 and what transpired. Netanyahu submitted a lengthy response to Israel’s watchdog about his own actions around October 7, but Gil alleges the document “reflects only part of the picture.”

“What I saw does not faithfully reflect everything that was said in those discussions,” he said. “It does not even reflect half the picture. I am talking about lies, half-truths and things that do not reflect what I witnessed during my time as military secretary.”