Iran Press/ West Asia: Israel’s eyes are never very far away from Gza. Surveillance drones buzz constantly from the skies. The highly-secured border is awash with security cameras and soldiers on guard. Intelligence agencies work sources and cyber capabilities to draw out a bevy of information, Hindustan Times reported.
But Israel’s eyes appeared to have been closed in the lead-up to an unprecedented attack by Hamas, which broke down Israeli border barriers and sent hundreds of militants into Israel to carry out an attack that has killed hundreds and pushed the region toward conflict.
Israel’s intelligence agencies have gained an aura of invincibility over the decades because of a string of achievements. Even when their efforts have stumbled, agencies like the Mossad, Shin Bet, and military intelligence have maintained their mystique.
“This is a major failure,” said Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “This operation actually proves that the (intelligence) abilities in Gaza were no good.”
Amidror declined to offer an explanation for the failure, saying lessons must be learned when the dust settles.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesman, acknowledged the army owes the public an explanation. But he said now is not the time. “First, we fight, then we investigate,” he said.
Some say it is too early to pin the blame solely on an intelligence fault. They point to a wave of low-level violence in the West Bank that shifted some military resources there and the political chaos roiling Israel over steps by Netanyahu's far-right government to overhaul the judiciary. The controversial plan has threatened the cohesion of the country's powerful military.
But the apparent lack of prior knowledge of Hamas' plot will likely be seen as a prime culprit in the chain of events that led to the deadliest attack against Israelis in decades.
Despite those abilities, Hamas was able to keep its plan under wraps. The attack, which likely took months of planning and meticulous training and involved coordination among multiple fighter groups, appeared to have gone under Israel's intelligence radar.
Amir Avivi, a retired Israeli general, said that without a foothold inside Gaza, Israel's security services have come to rely increasingly on technological means to gain intelligence. He said Hamas has found ways to evade that technological intelligence gathering, giving Israel an incomplete picture of their intentions.
But Avivi said the failure extends beyond just intelligence gathering and Israel's security services failed to put together an accurate picture from the intelligence they were receiving, based on what he said was a misconception surrounding Hamas' intentions.
An Egyptian intelligence official said Egypt, which often serves as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, had spoken repeatedly with the Israelis about “something big,” without elaborating.
He said Israeli officials were focused on the West Bank and played down the threat from Gaza. Netanyahu's government is made up of supporters of Jewish West Bank settlers who have demanded a security crackdown in the face of a rising tide of violence there over the last 18 months.
“We have warned them an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big. But they underestimated such warnings,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the content of sensitive intelligence discussions with the media.
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