US intelligence has “indicated” that it was unaware of Hamas’ plans for its bloody Oct. 7 surprise attack before the onslaught took place, a top official confirmed Sunday.
Over year before the deadly attack, Israeli officials obtained a roughly 40-page blueprint outlining Hamas’ battle plan, but dismissed it as unachievable for the terror group, the New York Times reported.
National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby carefully suggested that the US did not have knowledge of that document, dubbed “Jericho Wall.”
“The intelligence community has indicated that that they did not have access to this document,” Kirby told “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
“They have no indications at this time that they had any advance warning of this document or any knowledge of it.”
Hamas’ Oct. 7 onslaught led to the deaths of at least 1,200 Israelis and sparked a war that the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry claims killed well over 15,000 Palestinians.
Kirby underscored the complexities of intelligence gathering when pressed about why the US would not have had access to the document.
“Intelligence is a mosaic and sometimes you know you can fashion things together and get a pretty good picture,” Kirby contended. “Other times, you know that there’s pieces of the puzzle that are missing.”
“Jericho Wall” did not specify a date for when the attack would take place, but rather laid out an offensive strategy to blow through Israeli defenses around the Gaza Strip, the New York Times reported.
The terror group “followed the blueprint with shocking precision,” according to the outlet, which obtained a copy of the plan.
Internally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under intense scrutiny for the intelligence failures surrounding the bloody Oct. 7 attack.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu has already spoken pretty candidly about this and calling it, you know, a failure on their part,” Kirby said.
“They’ll take a look at this at the right time. They need to do that. Right now, though, the focus has got to be on making sure that they can eliminate this truly genocidal threat to the Israeli people.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also weighed in on the revelation Friday, pledging that there would be “accountability” for the run-up to the attack.
“Right now, the focus is on making sure that they can do everything possible to ensure that it doesn’t happen again,” Blinken said in Dubai ahead of the COP28 climate summit.
Shortly after the Oct. 7 attack, reports emerged that Egyptian intelligence officials warned their Israeli counterparts about an attack days before it took place.
On Nov. 24, the two sides agreed to a humanitarian pause to allow aid to flow into the besieged Gaza Strip and let hostages be freed.
That pause ended last Friday after Netanyahu accused Hamas of violating the terms of the agreement.
Israel then pulled out of negations in Qatar, a third-party broker where many top leaders of Hamas are living.
“There are no official negations going on,” Kirby explained. “That’s because of Hamas. Hamas failed to come up with yet another list of women and children to be released and we know they’re holding additional women and children.”
Kirby stressed that the US is still seeking to get negations back on track.
“We would like that to happen today. But honestly, I just don’t know,” he said, when asked about when negotiations could resume.