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'It's my mistake': Israeli official admits intelligence failure on Hamas attack
Israel-Hamas War: "We really believed that Hamas learned the lesson from" its last major war with Israel in 2021, Tzachi Hanegbi said.
A senior Israeli official admitted "mistakes" in intelligence assessments ahead of a brutal Hamas attack last weekend which took the country and the world by surprise. National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said, "It's my mistake, and it reflects the mistakes of all those making (intelligence) assessments" when he was asked about his recent remarks predicting no Hamas aggression.
"We really believed that Hamas learned the lesson from" its last major war with Israel in 2021, Tzachi Hanegbi said.
Read more: ‘Unusual’ 4am briefing but…: Israel PM's aide on how Hamas blindsided Tel Aviv
This comes as the Israeli military said that its forces were preparing to implement a wide range of operational offensive plans as expectations grew of an imminent invasion of the Gaza Strip. The military said its forces were deployed across the country, increasing operational readiness for the next stages of the war, “with an emphasis on significant ground operations.”
Tzachi Hanegbi- Benjamin Netanyahu's national security adviser-said that Israel received no concrete warning, including from Egypt, of the October 7 attack by Hamas. The chief of Israel's Shin Bet domestic security service was summoned for an unusual 4 am briefing that day - 2.5 hours before the attack began - on new intelligence information, Tzachi Hanegbi said, adding, this did not warrant mobilisation.
