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

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.

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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.”

在一次措辞严厉的采访中，以色列总理本杰明·内塔尼亚胡的一位前高级助手表示，在 10 月 7 日袭击事件发生之前，以色列领导人曾被内部警告过可能发生战争，而且公众所了解的情况与实际发生的事情之间仍然存在“巨大的差距”。

在以色列历史上最致命的恐怖袭击发生当天早上，阿维·吉尔少将叫醒了以色列总理内塔尼亚胡。他的讲话在决定内塔尼亚胡政治前途的关键选举前几周，给内塔尼亚胡施加了新的压力。

吉尔在接受以色列第 12 频道新闻采访时表示，他曾在 2021 年 7 月至 2024 年 5 月期间担任内塔尼亚胡的军事秘书，“数周以来，文件不断提交，国防机构描述了这样一种现实：我们的敌人认识到以色列社会的分裂——一种被认为的弱点——并看到以色列的威慑力正在被削弱。”

吉尔表示，虽然没有关于加沙发动大规模袭击的具体警告，但他表示，以色列安全机构明白，该国的对手将席卷全国的抗议活动和社会内部日益加剧的分裂视为机会。

吉尔说：“我们是否开始在安全机构内部发现威慑力减弱以及敌人对以色列国的看法发生了变化？答案是肯定的，而且这一点已在各个层面进行了沟通。”

第一手证词进一步佐证了越来越多的报道，这些报道称，在 2023 年 10 月 7 日之前的几周和几个月里，内塔尼亚胡收到了关于哈马斯可能从加沙发动袭击的一般性和具体性的警告。

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以色列《国土报》9月初报道称，阿联酋领导人在袭击发生前几天直接致电内塔尼亚胡，警告他哈马斯即将发动大规模袭击。与此同时，《大西洋月刊》报道称，埃及情报部长也亲自飞往以色列，告知内塔尼亚胡哈马斯正在筹备一场重大袭击。

内塔尼亚胡否认了这些报道，称《国土报》的报道“完全是谎言”。

吉尔的说法有所不同，因为他来自以色列政府最高层。作为内塔尼亚胡的军事助理，吉尔曾与总理一起参加安全内阁会议，并在战争爆发前接触到关键的通信内容。

袭击发生当天早上，是吉尔打电话叫醒了内塔尼亚胡，然后通过一部安全的“红色电话”与他取得了联系。他说，在早上6点41分——也就是哈马斯领导的袭击开始12分钟后——他明确地告诉内塔尼亚胡：“我们处于战争状态。”

针对此次采访，内塔尼亚胡发表声明称：“和其他人一样，阿维·吉尔也知道即将发生的袭击，但他选择不及时叫醒总理。吉尔的采访意在掩盖他执政失败这一简单而痛苦的事实。”

采访结束后，反对派政客猛烈抨击内塔尼亚胡，呼吁总检察长调查吉尔的指控。“10月7日事件的真相并非内塔尼亚胡的私有财产，”内塔尼亚胡的主要挑战者、以色列前总参谋长加迪·艾森科特表示，“以色列公众有权了解全部真相，有权对责任进行彻底调查，并有权寻求正义。”

图片来源：CNN/美联社、英国政府印刷局/Facebook、人质和失踪家属论坛、人质家属组织、以色列国防军/X和路透社

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吉尔表示，就像负责人质事务的以色列军事部门负责人一样，内塔尼亚胡将维护自身政府稳定置于人质获释之上，即便这些人质原本可以活着回家。吉尔回忆说，内塔尼亚胡或许曾倾向于接受早期的人质协议，但其政府中的极右翼部长们最终说服了他。

“遇难者家属会来找我，我会和他们坐在一起……有个词叫‘幸存者’，每当我坐在那些从地狱归来的人对面时，我都会觉得这个词很可怕。是的，你知道，他们中的一些人本来可以更早回家，”他说。

吉尔表示，以色列公众对10月7日前后发生的事情的了解与实际情况之间存在“巨大差距”。内塔尼亚胡就其在10月7日前后的行为向以色列监察机构提交了一份冗长的回应，但吉尔声称该文件“只反映了部分事实”。

他说：“我所看到的并不能完全反映那些讨论中所说的一切。它甚至连一半的情况都反映不出来。我指的是谎言、半真半假的话，以及那些与我担任军事部长期间所见所闻不符的事情。”