The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 could be one of the biggest failures of Israeli intelligence since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Bloomberg writes.
The terrorist organization penetrated to the south by land and sea, and also carried out a massive missile attack — the coordination of these actions was to be tracked and warned by intelligence, the agency emphasizes.
Now Israel and its ally the US will study how it happened.
Former US Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk noted the "lack of preparation, the lack of troops along the border, the lack of fencing along the border" for which "millions of shekels" were paid.
Bloomberg notes that the Hamas attack comes 50 years after Israel failed to prevent a surprise attack by Egypt and Syria during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur (Judgment Day).
Then the failure of intelligence led to the creation of a commission to find out what went wrong.
According to Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment, "the real problem is that the Israelis did not believe that Hamas would risk breaking through the border."
He added that "the lack of sufficient Israeli forces in the region was a serious mistake."
What is happening in Israel?
On the morning of October 7, the Palestinian movement Hamas attacked Israel, announcing the start of the military operation "Al-Aqsa Flood". In response, Israel announced the start of a counter-terrorist operation in the Gaza Strip called "Iron Swords." Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address to citizens that the country is "at war and will win".