IDF Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir will establish a special investigation team to examine Israeli intelligence failures regarding Hamas's 2022 “Walls of Jericho” plan and an additional Hamas raid plan from 2018, N12 reported on Sunday.
According to the report, this comes as a surprise, given that Zamir was the commander of the Southern Command when the “Jericho Wall” plan was uncovered and may therefore be a main target of the probe.
Zamir is set to select the new head of the special investigation team in the coming days, according to Ynet, with the objective being to “examine everything in depth and independently.”
The Turgeman Commission, the official investigation into IDF failures on October 7, was criticized by the military and political echelons for failing to investigate both the 2022 "Walls of Jericho" and 2018 raid plans.
What were the Hamas “Jericho Wall” and raid plans?
The "Walls of Jericho" plan and 2018 raid plan were two Hamas-created documents outlining operational plans for surprise attacks on Israel, similar to the massacre Hamas carried out on October 7, 2023.
Israeli intelligence was reportedly aware of Hamas planning since the first raid outline was uncovered in 2018, but neither plan was taken seriously by those in charge at the time.
In 2022, when the “Walls of Jericho” plan was uncovered by Israeli intelligence, with some officials pointing out that Hamas’s strategy might not be “set in stone,” without actual procedures “on paper.”