According to The New York Times, Israeli officials had intelligence suggesting that Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, was planning a significant attack before their assault on October 7.
The newspaper said a document obtained by Israeli authorities “outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people.”
The newspaper reviewed a document that did not specify the timing of the attack, but outlined a strategy that Hamas seems to have followed. This strategy involved launching rockets, disabling surveillance, and sending armed individuals into Israel by both land and air.
The document contained sensitive information about the Israeli military’s capabilities and locations, and it was widely circulated among military and intelligence leaders in the country. However, it is unclear if senior politicians reviewed it.
A military assessment conducted last year concluded that it was too early to confirm whether Hamas had approved the plan. Additionally, when an analyst from the country’s signals intelligence warned that Hamas had conducted a training exercise in line with the plan, her concerns were disregarded.
She warned it was a “plan designed to start a war,” the newspaper said, but a colonel reviewing her assessment suggested: “let’s wait patiently.”
According to the Times, the warnings did not indicate that Hamas was about to carry out the plan immediately. The intelligence community still believed that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar did not want war with Israel.
The Times compared this intelligence failure to the ones that occurred in the United States before the September 11, 2001 attacks. Israeli officials reported that the Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and around 240 people were taken hostage. In response, Israel launched a ground and air offensive in Gaza, which resulted in the deaths of over 15,000 people, mostly civilians, according to Hamas authorities.
