There were warning signals about a Hamas attack. Why didn't the IDF react?
4:21 PM EDT, October 12, 2023
The spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, admitted that there were warning signs from intelligence sources before the Palestinian Hamas attack on Israel. However, there were no specifics that compelled specific actions to be taken.
- There was no clear warning (of the attack). But in the hours leading up to (the assault) there were certain signs from the Gaza Strip, based on various signals from intelligence sources - said Hagari in an interview with the Times of Israel. - Intelligence officers, who received this information, discussed it on Friday evening and were supposed to return to the subject the next day - added the spokesman.
The United States once made a similar mistake
According to reports from The New York Times, suspicious activity was detected in the networks of Hamas militants before the attack. However, the warning did not receive a reaction from the services, and it may not have been fully understood. It was reminded that a similar situation happened in the United States shortly before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
- Intelligence analysis is like putting together a thousand puzzles, creating a picture from individual elements while trying to make judgments for decision-makers so they can actually do something with the observations - said Javed Ali, a former American intelligence worker.
The Hamas attack started with a heavy rocket barrage. About 5,000 rockets were fired, which Iron Dome couldn't handle. This famous Israeli anti-missile defense system that includes the EL/M-2084 radar, BMC control center, and the Tamir anti-missile launcher, is highly effective, but the scale of the attack was a problem for it. The firing of so many rockets by Hamas overloaded the defense system. It did not matter what type of missiles the attackers used.
To a large extent, these were projectiles from improvised structures with a small range and low accuracy. Przemysław Juraszek, a journalist for Virtual Poland, wrote about the equipment that the Hamas fighters have at their disposal. Military-focused portals draw attention to the growing number of allies of this organization. Aside from Iran and Russia, the terrorists are supported by North Korea.
The spokesperson for the Israeli armed forces also reported that between one to two thousand Hamas terrorists who participated in the attack managed to return to the Gaza Strip.
