According to a report in the New York Times, Israel had evidence of a planned major attack by the Islamist Hamas more than a year before October 7th. Accordingly, there was a comprehensive exchange between Israeli authorities about a 40-page document codenamed “Jericho Wall,” which outlined a Hamas battle plan. This is said to have been similar in every detail to the attack that Hamas terrorists carried out from the Gaza Strip at the beginning of October, the US newspaper reported.
That draft is said to have fallen into the hands of Israeli authorities “last year” – more than a year before the attack – and then circulated in military and secret service circles. Ultimately, however, it was dismissed by the experts as too demanding and difficult for Hamas to carry out.
[…]Three months before the actual attack, according to emails reviewed by The New York Times, an intelligence analyst in the decoding unit warned that Hamas had completed training that was very close to the “Jericho Wall” document. “I strongly disagree that the scenario is imaginary,” she wrote to an army colonel in the Gaza unit. “It’s a plan designed to start a war. It’s not just an attack on a village.”
But the military colleague maintained that Hamas was unable to actually carry out such a comprehensive plan. “In short: let’s wait patiently,” was his answer.