Israel admits intelligence failure in predicting Hamas attacks

A senior Israeli official on Saturday admitted that the current situation in Israel reflected the "mistakes" made by him and the ones making intelligence assessments.

"It's my mistake, and it reflects the mistakes of all those making (intelligence) assessments," National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi told a press briefing on being asked about his recent remarks predicting no Hamas aggression.

"We really believed that Hamas learned the lesson fromits last major war with Israel in 2021," Hanegbi said.

He further rebuffed queries on any negotiations towards any prisoner swap deal with Hamas.

"There's no way to negotiate with an enemy we have sworn to obliterate," he said.

Last week on Saturday (Oct 7), the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack against Israel breaching the Gaza border barrier.

As per Israeli officials, more than 1,300 civilians and security forces have been killed since the assault, and at least 120 have been seized by militants and believed to be held captive in Gaza.

US intelligence warned of assault by Hamas, reveals report

The US intelligence community is believed to have briefed President Joe Biden about the assault by Hamas in the weeks ahead of the October 7 terrorist attacks, a CNN report has revealed.

As per reports, one update shared on September 28, which was backed by multiple intelligence inputs, indicated that Hamas was planning a massive rocket attack on Israel.

The second assessment was produced on October 5, when the country’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) warned of the increasing possibility of violence by Hamas.

On October 6, the day before Hamas’ assault, US officials reportedly circulated inputs that came directly from Israel. All of this indicated a massive Gazan attack on Israel.

It was unclear whether or not the US intelligence assessments were shared with the Israeli administration.

While the intelligence hinted at the possibility of violence, none of the inputs gave details or indicated the sheer scale and brutality of the attack.

(With inputs from agencies)

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