WASHINGTON, Oct  11, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Israel got a warning from Egypt of

potential violence three days before Hamas caught Israeli forces off-guard in a
large-scale attack, the chairman of the powerful US House Foreign Affairs
Committee said Wednesday.

"We know that Egypt has warned the Israelis three days prior that an event
like this could happen," Republican Michael McCaul told reporters following a
closed-door intelligence briefing for lawmakers on the crisis.

"I don't want to get too much into classified, but a warning was given," he
said. "I think the question was at what level."

Israel is reeling from the deadliest attack in its 75-year history, as more
than 1,500 militants stormed through the Gaza security barrier in their
coordinated land, air and sea attack on the Jewish Sabbath.

The US ally says Hamas gunmen killed more than 1,200 people and wounded
over 2,700 as they swept into small towns and kibbutzim and indiscriminately
killed residents who hid in their homes or died defending their communities.

Israel has been relentlessly pounding Hamas targets in Gaza in response,
and the war has already claimed the lives of more than 3,700 lives of Israeli
and Palestinian civilians, soldiers and combatants.

In Washington, President Joe Biden has pledged to send more US munitions
and military hardware and expressed revulsion at the "sheer evil" of the
slaughter of civilians.

McCaul said the attack may have been planned as long as a year ago.
"We're not quite sure how we missed it. We're not quite sure how Israel
missed it," he told reporters.