The United States guarantees that it was not aware of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’s plan to carry out attacks on Israel on October 7, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
Kirby’s statements come after The New York Times reported that Israeli authorities had access to a 40-page document detailing a plan similar to the attack Hamas carried out in southern Israel, which Telavice authorities say killed 1,200 and more than 200 people were kidnapped. in the Gaza Strip.
“The intelligence community has indicated that it has not had access to this document,” Kirby said in an interview with NBC News today.
Asked whether the United States should have been aware of these plans given its close coordination with Israel, Kirby emphasized that the intelligence tasks are like “a mosaic.”
“Sometimes you know you can create things together and get a really good picture. Other times you know there are pieces of the puzzle missing,” he explained on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The New York Times revealed Thursday that Israeli authorities had access to a Hamas plan that included the use of “drones” to destroy security cameras on the Gaza Strip border or the mass entry of militants on foot, from motorcycles and using paragliders. although no date has yet been set for the surgery.
Israeli military officials in the region did not believe an attack of this magnitude was possible and doubted whether the plan had been accepted by the Palestinian group.
The Hamas attack was the bloodiest episode in Israel’s history, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare war on the group and launch an offensive in the Gaza Strip that has already claimed the lives of more than 15,000 people. Strip, controlled by the Palestinian movement since 2007.
The National Security Council spokesperson confirmed that negotiations to reach a new humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, and to facilitate new hostage exchanges, have completely stalled.
“At this time there are no official negotiations,” Kirby said, before blaming Hamas for the paralysis resulting from a lack of consensus when it came to the release of Israeli women, according to a draft list it had initially accepted before it came back.
Kirby noted that “Hamas also agreed to allow the Red Cross to visit the hostages while the humanitarian pause was in effect,” which ended Friday, “but that has not happened and will not happen.”
“The negotiations have unfortunately stopped, but what has not stopped is our role in trying to free the hostages held by the Palestinian militias,” the spokesperson said, adding: “We would like the negotiations to resume today , but at this point we don’t have to know.”
Kirby acknowledged concerns within United Nations agencies about the forced displacement of one and a half million Palestinians, mainly in the south of the enclave: “That is why we are working with Israel to make the people of Gaza feel safe.”
In this sense, the North American spokesperson viewed Israel’s publication of a map showing sectors of the Gaza Strip on which the next bombings occur as a positive development.
The ongoing war in the Middle East began on October 7 following an attack by the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which saw the launch of thousands of rockets into Israel and the infiltration of around 3,000 fighters, killing more than 1,200 people, including most of them civilians, and kidnapped another 240 people in Israeli villages near the Gaza Strip.
In retaliation, the Israeli army launched an air, land and sea offensive on that Palestinian enclave, killing more than 15,000 people, burying some 6,000 people under rubble and displacing 1.7 million, facing a serious crisis. confronted. given the collapse of hospitals and the lack of shelter, drinking water, food, medicine and electricity.
Source: DN
