Former Israeli defense minister predicted Hamas invasion – report

A 2016 classified document by former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman accurately forewarned of the October 7th Hamas massacre.

By Mindy Rubenstein, World Israel News

In 2016, Avigdor Liberman, serving then as Israel’s defense minister, wrote an 11-page document detailing the looming Hamas threat.

The document, marked top secret, outlined a scenario in which Hamas would deploy well-trained forces into Israel, aiming to capture communities on the Gaza border and take hostages.

This foretelling mirrors the tragic events of October 7, when nearly 2,500 Hamas terrorists came into Israel, killing more than 1,400 Israelis and taking at least 239 hostages, including children.

Liberman, in a recent interview, shared that he presented the document to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in December 2016, emphasizing that an attack by Hamas was imminent.

“Hamas intends to take the conflict into Israeli territory by sending a significant number of well trained forces (like the Nukhba [commandos] for example) into Israel to try and capture an Israeli community (or maybe even several communities) on the Gaza border and take hostages,” Liberman wrote in the document, labeled top secret.

“Beyond the physical harm to the people, this will also lead to significant harm to the morale and feelings of the citizens of Israel.”

Liberman said during a recent interview about the document that he was “waved away dismissively,” including by security chiefs, and that he was made to feel “arrogant.”

Yuval Diskin, former head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, stated in 2013 that “one of the main people contributing to Hamas’s strengthening has been Bibi Netanyahu, since his first term as prime minister.”

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, in August 2019, accused Netanyahu of maintaining a strategy that “keeps Hamas alive and kicking… even at the price of abandoning the citizens [of the south]… to weaken the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.”

In 2018, KAN News published images of suitcases filled with $15 million in cash destined for Hamas, which passed through the Erez crossing from Israel into Gaza.

In response, Liberman ultimately resigned over what he called Israel funding terrorism against itself.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett also condemned these payments and resigned.

Israel’s current finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said in 2015 that “Hamas is an asset, and (Palestinian Authority leader) Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) is a burden.”

Labor Party Knesset member Haim Jelin said in 2019, “We Gaza border residents are paying the price for the lack of policy and the arrogance in facing terror.”

Avigdor LibermanBenjamin NetanyanuHamas