Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Wednesday that Egypt warned Israel of a potential attack three days before Hamas launched its incursion into southern Israel, confirming earlier reports.
“We know that Egypt has warned the Israelis three days prior that an event like this could happen,” McCaul said after a closed-door intelligence briefing. “I don’t want to get too much into classified, but a warning was given. I think the question was at what level.”
Shortly after the Hamas attack was launched, an Egyptian intelligence official told the AP that Cairo had given a warning that something was coming. “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 official said.
Another report from Ynet said Egypt’s Intelligence Minister General Abbas Kamel called Netanyahu just 10 days before the Hamas attack, warning that militants in Gaza were planning “something unusual, a terrible operation.”
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly denied the reports, calling them fake news. “No early message came from Egypt and the prime minister did not speak or meet with the intelligence chief since the establishment of the government — not indirectly or directly. This is completely fake news,” the office said.
The Hamas operation has raised questions about how Israel could have been taken so off guard and not known about such a large attack. Hamas launched the attack from Gaza, which has been under Israeli blockade since 2007 and is constantly under surveillance.
Source: AntiWar.
