A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged Thursday that the Israeli military had intelligence “signs” or “indicators” of a looming Hamas attack before the Palestinian militants launched their bloody assault on Oct. 7, but said there was no clear warning, and nothing to suggest the scale of the attack being planned.
“There was no intelligence warning. The indicators that appeared hours ago were intelligence indicators of various kinds,” Israel’s Walla news outlet quoted IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari as saying Thursday. He stressed that the “indicators” did not point to a Palestinian attack “of this magnitude.”
Questions have mounted rapidly over how Israel’s vast intelligence network failed to detect and disrupt the well-orchestrated, and seemingly long-planned attack. Hamas training videos posted online weeks and even months before the assault include scenes eerily reminiscent of those that played out in southern Israeli communities and at military posts on Oct. 7.
During a briefing later Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said if the U.S. had seen any intelligence indicating Hamas was poised to strike before it did, “we would share them with Israel. But to my knowledge, we did not see that.”