The Nationwide Safety Council claimed on Sunday that United States intelligence had no prior data of a doc detailing Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault plan, after a bombshell report lately revealed that Israeli authorities obtained such info a yr in the past.
On Friday, The New York Times reported that the Israeli army was conscious of Hamas’ plan to assault Israel greater than a yr earlier than the lethal Oct. 7 assault that resulted in about 1,200 lifeless and 240 taken hostage. The doc detailing the plan was reportedly seen by many members of the Israeli army and intelligence neighborhood, who dismissed it as “aspirational” as a substitute of taking it severely.
Nationwide Safety Council spokesperson John Kirby mentioned on Sunday that the U.S. intelligence neighborhood is “looking into” the allegations within the Occasions report.
“Proper now, George, they don’t have any indications that we, america intelligence neighborhood, had any data of that doc beforehand or any visibility into it,” Kirby told George Stephanopoulos of Israel on ABC’s “This Week.”
“Now look, Israel — they’ve already talked about this. [Prime Minister] Netanyahu has mentioned that there’s clearly been some failures within the intelligence world when it got here to Oct. 7. They’re going to check out this,” he continued. “They’ll do the forensic. They’ll try this and so they’ll do it completely. However proper now, actually on intelligence, the main focus has acquired to be on ensuring that Israel has what it must go after Hamas management.”
In keeping with the Occasions, Israeli officers possessed a 40-page battle plan known as “Jericho Wall,” which laid out a possible assault by Hamas on southern Israeli communities. The doc mentioned that Hamas would rain rockets on Israel, use drones to disable Israeli surveillance on the border wall, and take over southern communities and army bases.
Ron Dermer, Israel’s minister of strategic affairs, instructed Stephanopoulos on Sunday that Netanyahu’s authorities will conduct an investigation into the main points of the Occasions report, but only after the war. Dermer mentioned that Netanyahu was possible not conscious of such a doc a yr in the past as a result of he was not Israel’s prime minister on the time.
The report provides to the already existing public outrage in Israel over Netanyahu and his authorities’s failure to forestall the assault regardless of a number of warnings.
Asked by NBC’s Kristen Welker if the White Home ought to have recognized in regards to the doc given how carefully U.S. intelligence coordinates with Israel, Kirby declined to offer a direct reply.
“Intelligence is a mosaic and typically you possibly can vogue issues collectively and get a fairly good image. Different occasions, there’s items of the puzzle which might be lacking,” Kirby instructed Welker on “Meet the Press.”
“As I mentioned, our personal intelligence neighborhood mentioned that they’ve checked out this. They don’t have any indications right now that that they had any superior warning of this doc or any data of it,” he mentioned.
The non permanent truce between Hamas and Israel ended on Friday, leading to Israeli authorities resuming nonstop bombardment that the Gaza Well being Ministry says has killed more than 700 Palestinians in Gaza over the past 24 hours. That quantity is among the highest each day loss of life tolls for the reason that violence escalated on Oct. 7.
“We consider that they’ve been receptive to our messages right here by way of attempting to minimalize civilian casualties,” Kirby instructed Stephanopoulos. “And I’d inform you, we noticed that as they went into north Gaza. They did [it] in a extra exact method, a smaller method.”
Greater than 15,500 Palestinians have been confirmed killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, 70% of whom are ladies and kids, in accordance with the ministry. Greater than 41,300 have been wounded.
Israel pulled again its negotiators from Qatar on Saturday, claiming that Hamas violated the phrases of the truce settlement. Israeli authorities didn’t present particulars on the violation. Hamas has mentioned that it’ll not resume captive-prisoner swap talks till Israel ends its destruction of Gaza.
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