Israeli Knesset member says ‘traitors from within’ might be behind Hamas attack

JERUSALEM

A member of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) said Sunday that “traitors from within” might be behind the Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian group Hamas.

“Something stinks, I don't know what we will find. That there were traitors within or a bunch of unprofessional people,” Tzvika Foghel, head of the National Security Committee, told Maariv newspaper.

Foghel said the Israeli intelligence couldn't be totally unaware of what was going to happen on Oct. 7.

“We got into the car of a nuclear scientist in Iran and killed him, yet we do not know what was happening in the Gaza Strip?” he said.

The Israeli lawmaker said that an investigation must be launched into the Oct. 7 events.

"When the head of the Shin Bet (security agency) says that an investigation committee must be formed, there are many parties that worry about themselves instead of the future of the country,” Foghel added.

He said in case the conspiracy theory was wrong, "we would have to replace entire units in the army and generations of leaders.”

“They were not wrong in their views, they were simply irresponsible and unprofessional, and they did wrong to the State of Israel,” he said. “I prefer to think that someone betrayed us from within."

"I cannot rule out that there is a conspiracy here. We cannot be so irresponsible, but I hope I am wrong,” Foghel continued.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

Despite a provisional ruling Friday by the ICJ that ordered Tel Aviv to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza, Israel continued its onslaught against the coastal enclave where at least 26,422 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 65,087 injured since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi