"US CIA Provides Hamas Leadership Intelligence to Israel"

The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been reported to be collecting information on the leadership of the Palestinian armed faction Hamas and the hostages held in the Gaza Strip by Palestinians, and providing it to Israel.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 12th (local time), the US daily New York Times (NYT) cited anonymous officials saying that Jake Sullivan, the US White House National Security Advisor, instructed intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense to form a task force (TF) to strengthen intelligence gathering on the Hamas leadership. It is known that this directive was issued shortly after Hamas's surprise attack on Israel on October 7 last year.

Accordingly, the US raised Hamas from level 4 to level 2 in its intelligence collection priority. Level 4 indicates almost no resources allocated for intelligence gathering, while level 2 is just below level 1, where most intelligence resources are deployed. Level 1 targets include countries that pose a more direct threat to the US, such as China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.

The US has intensified activities such as using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) to collect information in the Gaza Strip and intercepting Hamas communications.

However, the NYT assessed that it is unclear how valuable the information provided by the US to Israel is, as no high-ranking Hamas leaders have been captured or killed despite the US intelligence support.

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