Israeli Spies Knew in Advance Hamas Was Planning Attack on Border Settlements; But they Ignored the Information Because Girls Compiled the Intelligence Report?

A Hamas fighter in the Gaza Strip this summer. (Photo Credit: YOUSEF MASOUD/SOPA/ZUMA PRESS/Wall Street Jounal)

By TZBN Staff and Agencies.  

In late 2020 the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu removed  Yossi Cohen from his  position as head of  Israel’s spy Agency, Mossad.  He gave that position  to a little known figure in the secretive organization–one David Barnea–who had apparently been Yossi Cohen’s deputy before ascending to  the higher office.

At the time of appointment the Times of Israel described the new head of Mossad as quite experienced in the intelligence profession–having served in the Mossad for 25 years “including as head of the department handling agents”. 

Former Mossad Director Yossi Cohen
Current Mossad Director David Barnea

Mossad’s achievements are numerous on the world stage. The spy agency’s achievements include stealing Russian secret documents and passing them on to the United States of America in the 1950s, stealing in August 1966 the most advanced Russian war plane at that time– Mig-21–stolen from Iraq and landed at an air base in Israel.

In Africa the Mossad is known to have collaborated with the racist South African government’s secret service agency, BOSS, to identify the location Nelson Mandela was hiding, which led to the freedom fighters’ arrest and consequent incarceration to Robben Island in Cape town for almost all his most productive years.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, former Mossad director Yossi Cohen, right, and new director David Barnea at a ceremony conferring the Prime Minister’s Award on exceptional Mossad agents, May 24, 2021. (Photo Credit: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO/ Times of Israel)

In recent years the Mossad has been credited for killing Al-Qaeda leader Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, destroying components of Iran’s Natanz nuclear production facility  and the assassination of Iran’s chief nuclear program officer Mohsen Fakhrizadeh  on 27 November 2020 using a 1 ton self-destructing gun.

Sexual Misogyny  

From its history, Mossad would appear invincible. One would think all will be well. Reality is beginning to tell a different story. A blot in its recent operational intelligence exposes sexual misogyny  in its ranks as a serious problem which may be the reason there is an Israel-Hamas war which has cost hundreds of thousands of lives in both Israel and Palestine at the time of writing this report.

Israeli intelligence received a detailed report on an impending assault by Hamas shortly before the Palestinian militant group’s actual attack on October 7, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing persons familiar with the matter.

The warning, compiled by border sentries, – “many of them female soldiers,” the FT was told– arrived through secure communication lines to the highest-ranking intelligence officer in the southern command a few weeks before the attack, sources said, without identifying the senior security official.

Israeli Female Border Guards.

The report contained “specific warnings” on the looming assault, namely Hamas’ plans to breach the border at multiple points, enter Israeli territory and seize local settlements, a person with direct knowledge of its contents told FT.

The assessment was based on intelligence that included videos of Hamas militants in training. The high-ranking intelligence officer who received the report, however, dismissed the assessment as an “imaginary scenario” and no action was taken.

Reached by FT for comment, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the intelligence report and its fate, stating its “commanders and soldiers were exclusively focused strictly” on the battle against Hamas rather than finding those to blame for Israeli failures in the October 7 attack.

“Following the war, a thorough investigation will be conducted to clarify all details,” the IDF told FT.

The new allegations follow a recent report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which cited an unnamed Israeli female soldier, who blamed institutionalized sexism in the ranks of the IDF for the lack of attention to reports from its border sentries.

According to the report repeated by  RT News,  female surveillance troops relayed their concerns about unusual Hamas activities months before the incursion. They’d reportedly observed militants engaged in briefings near the border fence, training to disable surveillance cameras and to target Israeli tanks, as well as an increase in drone activity.

“It’s a unit made up entirely of young girls and young female commanders,” the source told Haaretz of the soldiers who’d compiled the warning for their superiors. “There is no doubt that if there were men sitting at those screens, things would look different.”