NEW YORK, October 14. /TASS/. US intelligence agencies warned the Washington administration of a potential escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict shortly before the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, CNN reports, citing sources.
According to the sources, the US intelligence community produced at least two assessments based in part on intelligence provided by Israel. "One update from September 28 warned, based on multiple streams of intelligence, that the terror group Hamas was poised to escalate rocket-attacks across the border. An October 5 wire from the CIA warned generally of the increasing possibility of violence by Hamas. Then, on October 6, the day before the attack, US officials circulated reporting from Israel indicating unusual activity by Hamas - indications that are now clear: an attack was imminent," the news outlet said.
However, according to the sources, the assessments did not offer any indications of "the overwhelming scope, scale and sheer brutality" of the Hamas operation.
"The problem is that none of this is new," CNN cited one of the sources as saying. "This is something that has historically been the norm between Hamas and Israel. I think what happened is everyone saw these reports and were like, ‘Yeah of course. But we know what this will look like,’" the source added.
Tensions in the Middle East flared up again after Hamas militants infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7. The Palestinian movement described its attack as a response to the actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Israel announced a total blockade of Gaza and started carrying out strikes on the Palestinian enclave, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank. Over 1,900 Palestinians have been killed and about 7,700 have suffered wounds; in Israel, the death toll stands at about 1,500 and nearly 4,000 people have been wounded.