Chairman of the National Security Committee of the Israeli Knesset, Zvika Vogel (Israeli press)
Chairman of the National Security Committee, Member of the Knesset, Brigadier General (res.) Zvika Vogel, on Sunday, did not rule out the presence of “traitors from within” behind the attack of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) last October 7 on the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip.
Fogel, who is from the "Otzma Yehudit" party (Jewish Force), said in statements to the Israeli newspaper Maariv, "Does it occur to you that for the past twenty years we did not know what was happening in the Gaza Strip? Someone here knew what would happen."
He added, "I am saying that there is something that, if we do not discover it in the future, we may deepen the gap we are in between the possibility of a conspiracy and the possibility that we are all stupid. I prefer to think that we are not stupid."
Vogel wondered, "We cannot know anything? Nothing? We got into the car of the nuclear scientist (..) in Iran and killed him, and we do not know what is happening in the sector? It is something much worse and someone must investigate it."
He continued, “When the head of the Shin Bet (Israeli Internal Security Service) Ronen Bar says that an investigation committee must be formed, I understand that there are many parties that have begun to worry about themselves instead of the future of the country.”
"There is something stinking here. I want someone to discover it. It can't be just a perception," he added.
He said that if this were not true, "we would have to replace entire units in the army and generations of leaders who were not wrong in their perception. They were simply irresponsible and unprofessional, and they did wrong to the State of Israel."
He added, "I prefer not to think that, and I prefer to think that someone betrayed us from within."
He said, "Maybe we will have to discover this truth in the future. I don't know which is better, to discover that there are traitors here or that there is a group of unprofessional people."
Vogel concluded his statements by saying, "I cannot rule out that there is a conspiracy here. We cannot be so irresponsible. I hope I am wrong."
On October 7, Hamas and other resistance factions carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, which included an attack on Israeli military points and settlements around the Gaza Strip, during which they killed about 1,200 Israelis, wounded about 5,431, and captured at least 239, in response to the ongoing Israeli attacks against the Palestinians and the mosque. Al-Aqsa.
Hamas exchanged dozens of detainees with Israel during a temporary humanitarian truce that lasted 7 days and ended in early December 2023.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, which as of Sunday left 26,422 martyrs and 65,87 injured, most of them children and women, according to the Palestinian authorities, and caused massive destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, according to the United Nations.
Source: Israeli press + Anadolu Agency