Two and a half weeks before Israel’s elections, and amid former Prime Minister’s military secretary Maj. Gen. Avi Gil’s recruitment to a political campaign against Benjamin Netanyahu, we’re revealing tonight (Thursday) details about Gil’s conduct in the hours leading up to the Hamas attack on October 7. Information obtained by Channel 14 shows Gil received several significant intelligence updates during the night but didn’t pass them to the prime minister in real time.
2+According to the information revealed, at 3:55 a.m. Gil received a message in the military secretary’s operational chat reporting unusual signs in the Gaza Strip, including activation of SIM cards and senior Hamas officials descending into tunnels. This was information that could have indicated unusual preparations by the terror organization, yet Gil didn’t pass it to the prime minister and didn’t wake him from his sleep.
At 6:15 a.m.—just 14 minutes before the Hamas attack began—the Shin Bet passed a targeted warning to Gil about the approaching assault. Even at this stage, according to the details in our possession, the military secretary didn’t update Netanyahu and didn’t wake him, despite the fact that the information received was more severe and focused than the signs received during the night.
2+Only at 6:29 a.m., as the Hamas attack began, did Gil wake the prime minister. But even in this conversation, he merely reported the start of the attack itself, without conveying to Netanyahu the intelligence information that had accumulated in his possession in the preceding hours.
Meanwhile, in the military secretary’s restricted WhatsApp group, Gil referenced the attack that had begun. In response, he was told that the events corresponded with information passed several hours earlier. This exchange raises a central question: to whom was that information passed during the night, and why didn’t it reach the prime minister?
2+Only at 6:44 a.m.—about 15 minutes after the attack began—did Gil pass to Netanyahu the intelligence information in his possession, including details received as early as 3:55 a.m. This means nearly three hours elapsed from the moment the first signs were received until the information was conveyed to the prime minister.
The details are being revealed precisely as Gil appears in a political campaign ahead of the elections, under the headline “The Conversation with the Man Who Woke the Prime Minister at 6:29.” But the central question arising from his conduct isn’t just when he woke Netanyahu, but why he didn’t do so earlier, and what considerations led to the delay in passing the information.
These questions demand answers, chief among them why significant intelligence information wasn’t conveyed to the prime minister in the critical hours before the attack.