The report comes after opposition leader Yair Lapid told an independent civilian commission of inquiry on Thursday that there were multiple instances before October 7 in which security officials told Netanyahu that his government’s policies were “eroding Israel’s deterrence.”
According to the report, on July 23, 2023, a day before the government voted in favor of the first major legislation to reform the judiciary, Bar requested a meeting with the prime minister in which he warned him that “due to the controversial legislation and the divisions it has created in Israeli society, Israel’s enemies see it as a weakness, and therefore there is an opportunity to launch an attack that could lead to war.”
“Today I warn you of war. We do not know the day and time when it will break out,” Yedioth Ahronoth quoted him as saying.
The report adds that although Bar was certain that Israel was heading toward war, he was likely referring either to a war in the north with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, or to an escalation in the West Bank and a third intifada that could expand later, not to a war with Hamas.
In response to the report, the Prime Minister’s Office said that Netanyahu “did not receive a warning about the war in Gaza, not on the alleged date mentioned in the article and not one minute before 6:29 a.m. on October 7.”
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