Khaberni - The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth revealed that Israeli intelligence services acknowledged their incapacity to infiltrate the leadership of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), highlighting that this constituted an intelligence failure which contributed to the absence of any prior warning about the Al-Aqsa flood.
The newspaper reported today, Friday, that the security establishment admitted that the Israel Security Agency (Shabak), Unit 504, and the foreign intelligence service (Mossad) did not have any prominent agents in the Hamas leadership for 20 years.
Yedioth Ahronoth clarified that "since the disengagement from Gaza, no significant agent has been planted within the Hamas leadership," referring to the "disengagement" plan unilaterally executed by Israel in the Gaza Strip in 2005, whereby it evacuated the settlements and military camps in the sector.
The newspaper pointed out that Shabak's estimates suggested that Hamas did not intend to escalate, which "reveals the failure and deep blindness that afflicted Shabak, as well as military intelligence and the rest of the Israeli establishment."
Why the Failure in Gaza and Success in Iran?
However, the hardest question, according to the newspaper, is "how is it conceivable that Israel, which manages to recruit agents in Iran thousands of kilometers away, failed to understand what was happening just 100 kilometers south of Tel Aviv?"
Yedioth Ahronoth attributed the failure of Israel to penetrate Hamas's leadership to several reasons including the isolation of Gaza, due to Israel's withdrawal from the sector in 2005, and the blockade imposed on the sector.
It stated that Gaza remained without “an economy or tourism or diplomatic relations, which are usual channels of entry for any country,” noting that "without contact, it is difficult to recruit agents."
Another factor that led to Israel's failure to penetrate Hamas, according to the newspaper, is because the movement understood much about Israeli methods, which Israel only realized later on.
Yedioth Ahronoth noted that Hamas closed the routes of infiltration through borders, sea, and checkpoints, and carried out public executions and repeated purging of Israeli agents.
A third factor mentioned by the newspaper refers to recommendations issued by the Israeli political leadership, specifically Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who instructed the Israeli army to avoid escalation in Gaza and refused to eliminate leaders from Hamas because it would mean "a war initiated by Israel."
The newspaper said that the irony is that Gaza's isolation - a political and security recommendation - rendered Israel blind, deaf, and paralyzed towards Hamas.
The report also mentioned another factor related to the nature of Hamas as an "enclosed, secretive, disciplined, and ideological organization," making it particularly difficult to penetrate.
The newspaper claimed that "Shabak had agents from the lower ranks, but hardly any of them reported valuable information before October 7, 2023," indicating that Israel realized, too late after October 7, 2023, that Hamas "is the toughest opponent in the Middle East."
