The Hamas attack exposed Israel's intelligence gap

Jerusalem [Israel], October 8: Israel has invested huge resources to gather intelligence on Hamas, but the attack on October 7 showed that that effort still seems to have many gaps.
While Israel is reeling from the bloody attack by Hamas forces on October 7, the country's security and defense officials face more and more questions about how the militant group did it. How and whether this is an intelligence failure of Israel ?
During the 1973 Yom Kippur War (also known as the Fourth Arab-Israeli War), Israeli forces were caught off guard by Syrian and Egyptian tank convoys. Now, exactly 50 years after that war, the army of the Jewish state is once again in a passive position before a surprise attack.
"The developments look quite similar to what happened at that time (50 years ago)... As we can see, Israel was completely surprised by a very well-coordinated attack," Reuters quoted retired general GioraEiland, former head of Israel's National Security Council.
Intelligence failure?
Israel is often considered the strongest intelligence power in the region, with extensive coverage across Gaza. So far, Israel has contained Hamas and Gaza with a strategy of relying on an intelligence network that can warn of Hamas's moves and relying on the strength of the Israeli army to repel Hamas's ground operations, according to The New York Times . During the Hamas attack on October 7, these two barriers were ineffective.
According to former Israeli national security advisor EyalHulata, Hamas had planned this attack for a long time. "It's clear that this was a highly coordinated attack and it's unfortunate that they were able to tactically surprise us and cause heavy damage," Reuters quoted Mr. Hulata as saying.
Hamas (ie "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian political-military movement born in 1987. Hamas and Fatah are the two organizations that play a key role in the effort to establish a new state. independent Palestinian state in territories currently controlled by Israel, including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Since 2005, Hamas and Fatah have been at odds with each other, especially after Hamas's victory in the 2006 legislative elections. Tensions peaked in 2007 when Hamas took over de facto governance in Gaza. Fatah retains control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank through President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israel and many Western countries, including the United States, consider Hamas a terrorist organization, accusing Iran of supporting this force. Israel and Hamas have traded attacks in multiple skirmishes since 2006, causing civilian casualties on both sides. But since causing heavy damage to Gaza in the 10-day war in 2021, Israel has applied a "carrot and stick" policy to maintain stability in the region.
Over the past 18 months as violence has increased across the West Bank, Gaza has been relatively quiet, except for sporadic clashes, mainly involving the smaller Islamic jihadist movement, and Hamas has remained largely on the sidelines.
However, Israel's security apparatus was passive when Hamas gunmen - numbering up to hundreds according to Israeli estimates - broke through defense barriers and invaded towns in the south of the country today. 7.10.
"This was an intelligence failure; there could be no other way... It was a security failure, undermining what was supposed to be Israel's decisive and effective approach to Gaza," Jonathan Panikoff, a former US government national intelligence official in charge of the Middle East, commented to Reuters.
An Israeli military spokesman said discussions about intelligence work would take place "in the future" but for now the focus was on combat. "We will talk about it when we need to talk about it," the spokesman told reporters during a news conference.
America was also surprised
Some senior US civilian and military officials said the Hamas attack surprised President Joe Biden's administration, according to The Wall Street Journal . The officials said they had not seen any intelligence reports in recent days warning Washington about the attack.
"I'm confident we have no information," said retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery. This former officer visited Israel earlier this year and during the trip, he visited the defense forces in one of the settlements (kibbutzim) in southern Israel that Hamas overran on October 7. Mr. Montgomery said a senior US military officer in the area boarded a plane and returned to the US in recent days, implying that it would not have happened if Washington had known about the Hamas attack in advance.
According to senior US defense officials quoted by The New York Times , the Hamas attack surprised Israeli intelligence officials, especially in terms of how these militants entered and left the territory. Israel. One of the US officials said that although Israeli intelligence had collected some signs that Hamas was planning a major operation, they still did not have a clear picture.
Many people also question why Israel and the US were blindsided when the complexity of the attack showed that Hamas needed to take many steps to prepare. "There may be signs of ammunition stockpiling and preparation by the attack force, and there was cyber activity in Israel before the attack," said Mick Mulroy, a former Central Intelligence Agency employee. US (CIA) and senior Pentagon officials commented.
Source: ThanhNien Newspaper