Middle East Monitor / October 9, 2023
An Egyptian intelligence official has said Israel repeatedly ignored warnings that “something big” was being planned by the Palestinian resistance.
The unnamed Egyptian said Israeli officials were too focused on the occupied West Bank and played down the threat from Gaza, which has been besieged for 17 years. “We have warned them an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big. But they underestimated such warnings,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press.
Cairo often mediates between Israel and Palestinian factions to restore a sense of calm after periods of fighting. Apart from crossing into Israel, the besieged Gaza Strip only has access to the world through Egypt, however Cairo helps enforce Tel Aviv’s stifling control over Gaza and stop Palestinians from entering and exiting the enclave.
Israel’s hardline far-right coalition is made up of a number of illegal settlers who live in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and have called for and are working towards the annexation of large swathes of the area. Since coming to power less than a year ago, attacks on Palestinians, their properties and their holy sites have increased with 2023 already the deadliest year in terms of Palestinian deaths at the hands of Israeli forces and settlers since the UN began maintaining figures.
