Two years later: Evidence shows U.S. and Israel missed warning signs before Oct. 7 Hamas attack

By Steven Richards | Just the News

The Pentagon on Biden's watch confirmed that the U.S. was "not aware" of the terrorist group’s plan to attack Israeli civilians, despite the prior warning signs in the months and years before the murderous plan.

Two years after the deadly terrorist attack on Israel by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, the prospects for peace, by the account of the U.S. President Donald Trump and a coterie of Arab states, seem higher than ever. 

But, a key question about the spark that ignited the conflict remains unanswered: How did U.S. intelligence miss the warning signs of an imminent attack by Hamas?

In the days before the killers spilled over the Gaza border in cars and skydiving to invade Israeli villages for the purposes of raping and mutilating civilians and Israeli soldiers caught unaware, the United States intelligence community reportedly produced several assessments warning of an increased risk of violence by Hamas, including rocket attacks. 

Biden admin ignored or “misdiagnosed” jihadist threat

At the time, the Pentagon confirmed that the U.S. was not aware of the terrorist group’s plan to attack Israel, despite the warning signs in the months and years prior, which were often fully visible in public.

In a visit to Israel last month, advisor to President Trump and Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Dr. Sebastian Gorka said he believed Western leaders, both intelligence and military, “misdiagnosed” the true threat that Hamas posed to Israel, leaving the country open to attack.  

“I think too many influential people in uniform, too many influential people in suits, misdiagnosed the nature of Hamas,” Gorka told the Israeli outlet JNS when asked what he thought went wrong on Oct. 7. 

The senior advisor also said that Western and Israeli officials were mistaken in believing that Hamas was primarily a political group with which a political solution could be negotiated. 

Israeli officials believed “there is a deal to be made with Hamas,” Gorka said. “They were wrong.”

Murder spree at music festival not foreseen, despite warning signs

When on Oct. 7, 2023, an estimated 6,000 Gazans, including 3,800 trained fighters, poured across the lightly-fortified border, and focused their murder spree on a music festival, Israeli security forces and leadership were taken completely by surprise. It took hours for the Israeli Defense Forces and the nation’s civilian leaders to marshal a counterattack even though Hamas had begun firing rockets into Israel almost an hour before the land invasion.  

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, many Israeli citizens saw Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as inept and distracted, consumed by domestic plans to remake the Israeli judiciary rather than focusing on keeping the country’s nearly 10 million residents safe from foreign attack. 

Then, in November of that year, The New York Times reported that it had reviewed a 40-page document obtained by Israeli intelligence that “outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people.” Though the document did not specify a date for the attack, it contained details about the kind of operation that Hamas was planning. 

Yet, the intelligence was reportedly dismissed by Israeli officials because experts assessed that such an attack, in its scale and ambition, was not within Hamas’ capabilities, the Times reported.