Israeli authorities are investigating claims by US researchers that some investors knew in advance of a Hamas plan to attack Israel on October 7 and used that information to profit from Israeli securities, Reuters and Sky News reported.

Research by law professors Robert Jackson Jr. of New York University and Joshua Mitts of Columbia University found significant short-selling of stocks before the attacks that triggered the massive Israeli bombing of Gaza.

“In the days leading up to the attack, traders seemed to have a premonition of what was about to happen,” they wrote, citing short interest in the MSCI Israel Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), which “rose sharply and significantly” on Oct. 2 Financial Regulatory Authority database industry (FINRA).

“And even before the attack, short selling of Israeli securities on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) increased sharply,” they wrote in their 66-page report.

In response, TASE referred Reuters to the Israel Securities Authority, which said: “This matter is known to the authorities and is being investigated by all relevant parties.”

A spokeswoman for the securities regulator did not elaborate, and Israeli police declined to comment.

Short selling, when investors expect the price of a stock to fall, allowing them to buy it at a lower price and at a profit, by Oct. 7 “exceeded the short selling that has happened many times,” the researchers said. crisis”.

These include the recession that followed the 2008 financial crisis, the 2014 Israel-Gaza war, and the COVID-19 pandemic.