Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant confirms Hamas warning reached Shin Bet intelligence agency before Oct. 7.
By World Israel News Staff
Former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Sunday that Israel’s Shin Bet security agency received a direct warning from Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar weeks before the Oct. 7 massacre, adding another senior confirmation that Israeli security officials were aware of an unusual threat from Gaza before the attack.
Gallant told Galei Tzahal, Israel’s Army Radio, that Sinwar had conveyed a message through a backchannel warning that he would “shake the prisons,” an apparent reference to forcing the release of Palestinian security prisoners held by Israel.
The message was delivered through former Palestinian Authority minister Sufian Abu Zaida, who had been acting as an intermediary in secret contacts between Hamas and Israel over a possible prisoner exchange.
Abu Zaida revealed last week that he met Sinwar in Gaza on Sept. 14, 2023, and was instructed to relay a precise message to Israel.
“Before the end of September, we will put the cards on the table, and it will cause an earthquake in the negotiations. They should prepare themselves for the prisons to be emptied,” Sinwar told him, according to Abu Zaida.
Abu Zaida said Sinwar dictated the message and instructed him to deliver it word for word.
He subsequently sent the warning to his Israeli contacts in both Hebrew and Arabic. According to his account, Israeli officials contacted him within about half an hour to verify that Sinwar had indeed used those words and summoned him to an urgent meeting the next day.
Abu Zaida said officials at the meeting told him the warning had kept members of the security establishment awake through the night.
The message reached the Shin Bet on Sept. 15, according to multiple reports. Then-Shin Bet director Ronen Bar subsequently briefed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a security consultation was held two days later.
Israeli officials reportedly struggled to determine what Sinwar meant by an “earthquake.”
One assessment was that Hamas might attempt to obtain custody of Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who had been kidnapped in Iraq, and use her as leverage in negotiations for Palestinian prisoners.
The Shin Bet nevertheless recommended taking action against the potential threat, according to subsequent accounts from security officials.
A senior Shin Bet official later said the agency had immediately passed the warning up the chain and recommended both offensive and defensive measures.
“We updated the system as soon as the first message arrived from Sufian Abu Zaida and recommended to Netanyahu that we nip it in the bud with a strike and reinforce our defenses,” the official said.
Gallant’s comments Sunday represent the clearest public confirmation yet from the man who was serving as defense minister at the time that Sinwar’s message had indeed reached the Israeli security establishment.
The disclosure has become enmeshed with a separate dispute over whether Netanyahu personally received another warning through the United Arab Emirates in the weeks before the attack.
Reports this month alleged that UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan personally warned Netanyahu that Sinwar was preparing a major action and urged him to take the threat seriously.
Netanyahu has categorically denied that such a conversation occurred and announced plans to file a libel lawsuit over the claim.
Gallant said Sunday that he had never been informed about any such warning from a foreign leader.
“I first heard about these warnings from media reports,” he said.
But he argued that if a warning from a foreign head of state had in fact been received and withheld from the defense establishment, the implications would be serious.
“Assuming these things are true, such a warning that a prime minister receives from the leader of a country is not a political asset; it is a fundamental failure in the overall assessment of the situation,” Gallant said.
The controversy has intensified following additional reports from Emirati sources.
Three senior UAE officials familiar with the matter reportedly said Emirati intelligence had separately warned the Shin Bet in September 2023 that Hamas could carry out a violent action before the end of the month.
That warning was described as closely matching the message Sinwar had conveyed through Abu Zaida.
The Emirati intelligence reportedly prompted bin Zayed to seek confirmation that Netanyahu had personally received and understood the warning.
Netanyahu has maintained that no conversation with the UAE president fitting that description took place during the relevant period.
Gallant also used Sunday’s interview to describe severe distrust between Netanyahu and senior members of Israel’s security establishment during the war that followed.
The former defense minister said Netanyahu repeatedly held sensitive discussions with senior American officials without informing him, even when the conversations involved issues falling directly under the defense minister’s authority.
“During the war, I learned many times about important conversations Netanyahu held with the Americans on the most sensitive issues, such as hostages and ammunition, only after the Americans called me and tried to verify what had been said in those conversations,” Gallant said.
“Their trust in the prime minister was low,” he added.
Gallant has previously said there were more than 10 occasions on which American officials contacted him about conversations with Netanyahu that he had not known had taken place.
“Every so often [American officials] would call me and say, ‘Your prime minister told us an hour ago, or two hours ago, such and such,’” Gallant said in an earlier interview.
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