CIA, Unable to Predict Surprise Despite Rocket Sighting: "It Was Israel, Not Us, Who Missed It"

Signs Detected but Large-Scale Attack Not Predicted
"Consistently Reported Possibility of Riots Over the Past Year"

Palestinian armed faction Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, and reports have emerged that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had detected signs of their rocket attack movements beforehand. However, it was revealed that they did not anticipate an attack of this large scale.

On the 13th (local time), the U.S. daily The New York Times (NYT) and CNN reported, "The CIA prepared two reports from late last month to early this month detailing unusual activities involving Hamas and the Israel-Palestine region."

The first report, written on the 28th of last month, compiled multiple intelligence sources and included content indicating that Hamas was ready to launch rocket attacks beyond the Israeli border.

The second report, released on the 5th, also stated that "the likelihood of Hamas engaging in violent acts is increasing."

Israeli artillery units fired toward Gaza on the 13th in the southern border area.

However, NYT and others reported that these CIA reports did not attract much attention among U.S. government officials at the time. The two reports did not contain detailed tactical information such as the scale of the attacks actually carried out by Hamas, infiltration of combatants, or hostage-taking.

A Biden administration official told CNN, "There was no intelligence warning of a terrorist attack in advance." Some government officials told NYT, "The two reports were no different from other reports over the past year regarding the possibility of riots within Palestine."

The CIA and U.S. intelligence agencies did not brief President Biden or senior White House officials on these reports. They also did not emphasize the content to White House policy staff.

A woman is praying at a pro-Palestine rally held in Miami, USA.

However, some current and former U.S. intelligence officials did not agree with the claim that the U.S. is responsible for failing to predict this Hamas attack. One official told CNN, "It was Israel that missed it, not us." Since the U.S. receives most of its information about the Gaza Strip in Palestine from Israel, the responsibility for this incident lies with Israel.

Israel’s intelligence agencies, boasting the world’s strongest intelligence capabilities, reportedly did not anticipate the Palestinian attack at all. CNN evaluated, "Considering the combined assets of Israel’s two major intelligence agencies, Shin Bet (domestic intelligence) and Mossad (foreign intelligence), as well as the Defense Forces, it is surprising that no one predicted Hamas’s large-scale attack."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.