Tel Aviv, June 18 (IANS/DPA): Israeli military intelligence sounded clear warnings regarding a pending attack more than two weeks before Hamas launched its attack from the Gaza Strip on October 7 last year, according to Kan, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation.

Plans to attack military bases and settlements and to take up to 250 hostages, including women and children, were set out in a document distributed within the Gaza Division of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on September 19, the Kan report said.

The report came from the highly regarded Unit 8200, an IDF unit responsible for collecting intelligence, but had been ignored by senior officers. The worst-case scenario being considered was that a few dozen terrorists could enter Israel at three points.

A Kan military correspondent said, "The security system at the time was working towards pacification of the Gaza Strip, by means of improving living conditions for the civilian population, work permits for Palestinians and the lifting of restrictions on goods."

The IDF had relied on the border defences reaching deep into the ground, but everything had collapsed on October 7, the correspondent reported. Senior officers in the Gaza Division had dismissed the warnings.