The October 7, 2023, attack exposed a major gap in Washington's intelligence on… Gaza and its broader understanding of the Islamic resistance movement (agitation).
According to a report by the American newspaper Politico, what happened in the surprise October 7 attack on Israel sparked a campaign to intensify information gathering and analysis in the Gaza Strip.
The report stated that the United States relied largely on Israel for internal information about Gaza, and the Israelis failed to take some of their internal warnings seriously.
Current and former officials say the United States has long struggled to gather intelligence on Hamas, and the United States has increased intelligence collection in the Gaza Strip since it was surprised byOctober 7 attack On Israel.
But gaps remain about what kind of intelligence might be needed to find a way to end the conflict.
Since the October 7 attack, the Biden administration has continued to prioritize intelligence gathering on other foreign crises, including the Hezbollah-Israel conflict, the war in Ukraine, and threats from China, officials and lawmakers familiar with the matter said.
blind spot
Politico spoke with 4 current and former senior US officials, 3 legislators and employees Congress Regarding this issue. Most were granted anonymity to speak freely about sensitive intelligence matters.
The significant US “blind spot” in Gaza drew immediate scrutiny in the days following Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7.
In media briefings in CapitolIntelligence officials told lawmakers they were surprised by what Hamas was able to accomplish. They said, “Planning the attack took months, if not years. It led to the death of 30 Americans, and it is the bloodiest attack on American citizens since the September 11 attacks.”
Senior members of Congress pressed for answers: Was the United States warned? How could Israel miss it?
Over the past year, US intelligence agencies have been trying to fill the gap, deploying drones, satellites and other surveillance tools – such as some radar – to better understand Hamas' military tactics. All of this helped Israel determine Hamas's locations in Gaza, according to the newspaper.
A year after the attack, US intelligence agencies are still struggling to understand the internal political dynamics of Hamas, whether it is ready to reach a ceasefire agreement and its long-term aspirations for Gaza, all of which are questions that policymakers need to answer immediately.
For decades, US administrations chose not to give priority to collecting and analyzing intelligence information regarding Gaza and Hamas. Despite the improvements, one year is not enough time to make up for it, according to current and former intelligence officials.
Politico believes that gaps in intelligence in Gaza may make it difficult for the White House to find the correct formula for a ceasefire agreement. It is unclear exactly where the US's blind spots lie, but the public debate over the proposed US hostage release and ceasefire agreement has exposed the lack of clarity.
The Biden administration claimed several times, according to the newspaper, that Hamas had accepted the proposal, but the movement came out and explicitly rejected it, and this is what happened with Israel.
Double intelligence failure
Officials and former senior US intelligence officers said that the United States began to rely heavily on the Israelis for intelligence information about Gaza and Hamas in the late 1990s, when Washington began dealing with the Palestinians more directly on the political front.
Since then, the United States has assigned certain units to track Hamas, the West Bank and Gaza, but these units are often small compared to those covering other countries and issues in the region, the officials said.
The United States has long helped fill in the intelligence gaps that the Israelis share with them. But the drawbacks of this became clear on October 7, 2023.
Norman Rolle, the former director of national intelligence on the Iran file, said, “We called this only an Israeli intelligence failure. We must be clear. This was also an American intelligence failure.”