The Missed Signal of the October 7 Attack -- Literally

IDF intelligence noted the night before Hamas's October 7 invasion that hundreds of Hamas members were switching on Israeli SIM cards, the censor finally cleared for publication on Monday, more than four months later.

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The fact that so many Hamas members were switching to Israeli SIM cards could have been strong evidence of a potential invasion.


Despite this evidence, the overall view at the time of IDF intelligence and other IDF officials was that Hamas would not dare to try such an invasion.

Ed Morrissey

That seems strange; why else would hundreds of Hamas operatives want to use Israeli SIMs, other than to operate in Israeli areas? Apparently, Israeli intel thought that the deterrent of a "devastating" IDF response would prevent such an attack, but clearly Hamas never thought the IDF would produce a sustained offensive in Gaza. In that sense, both sides made fatal miscalculations, but this one seems especially bad. Why else monitor these literal signals except as a warning of an attack?

The Israeli news outlet Ynet reported that Netanyahu was unaware of this until the story broke last night. That would be very strange too, and perhaps a little convenient for Netanyahu. 

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