Egypt told Israel before Oct. 7 that Hamas planned to ‘make the ground in Gaza tremble’ — report

Amid a report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a warning from the United Arab Emirates about Hamas plans to carry out a major attack in the weeks before the October 7, 2023, invasion, new details emerge about previously reported Egyptian warnings in the same period.

According to Army Radio, the Shin Bet intelligence service presented Netanyahu with warnings it received from Egyptian counterparts about Hamas’s intentions to “make the ground in Gaza tremble.”

The Egyptians gave only that general warning, with no precise details.

According to the report, then-Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar assessed that the warning meant — at least in part — that Hamas wanted to include the issue of kidnapped Israeli researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov in talks with Israel about a potential hostage deal. Hamas and Iraqi Shiite militia Kataeb Hezbollah — the group that was holding Tsurkov — had come to an agreement shortly before the warning that Tsurkov would be considered a Hamas asset for talks with Israel on releasing a large number of terrorists in exchange for the handover of two Israeli captives and the bodies of two IDF soldiers held in Gaza.

In the days after the October 7 onslaught, an Egyptian intelligence official said that Jerusalem had ignored repeated warnings that the Gaza-based terror group was planning “something big” — which included an apparent direct notice from Cairo’s intelligence minister to the prime minister.