Israeli MP says 'traitors within' may have known of October 7 attacks

A member of the Knesset, the parliament of Israel, has said "traitors from within" may have had prior knowledge of the October 7 attacks on the country.

"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 October 7.

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

The Israeli lawmaker said that an investigation must be launched into the October 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.

'Conspiracy'

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.

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

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