The United States would do “the same thing” as Israel if it suffered an attack like the one on October 7, a senior Biden administration official said on Sunday, although he admitted that US intelligence was not aware of a Hamas battle plan that Israel obtained for a year. before the attack.
“[Israeli officials] “I have every right and responsibility to go after the terrorist group that carried out these attacks and the planet and, by the way, they have made it clear that they will do it again and they will do more,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. to “Fox News.” Sunday.”
“We would do the same thing; any nation would do it,” Kirby said.
Kirby also addressed the recent revelation about Israeli security failures in the run-up to the bloody terrorist attack.
More than a year before the deadly attack, Israeli officials obtained a roughly 40-page blueprint outlining Hamas’s battle plan but discarded it as unattainable for the terrorist group, the New York Times reported last week.
John Kirby suggested that the US intelligence community did not have a copy of Hamas’s battle plans before the war. X/Meet the press
Kirby suggested that the United States did not learn about the document, called the “Wall of Jericho,” when its staunch ally Israel did.
“The intelligence community has indicated that they did not have access to this document,” Kirby told “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
“They have no indication at this time that they had any prior warning about this document or any knowledge of it.”
The Hamas attack on October 7 killed at least 1,200 Israelis and sparked a war that, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, has killed more than 15,000 Palestinians.
Kirby underscored the complexities of intelligence gathering when asked why the United States would not have had access to the document on the Hamas terrorist plot.
“Intelligence is a mosaic, and sometimes you know you can create things together and get a pretty good picture,” Kirby said. “Other times, you know there are pieces of the puzzle missing.”
The “Jericho Wall” did not specify a date when the attack would take place, but instead presented an offensive strategy to breach Israeli defenses around the Gaza Strip, the New York Times reported.
But the terrorist group “followed the plan with surprising precision,” according to the outlet, which obtained a copy of the plan.
Palestinians carry the body of who they say is an Israeli killed by Hamas gunmen who infiltrated areas of southern Israel on the Israel-Gaza border October 7, 2023. REUTERS Palestinians ride in an Israeli military jeep through the streets of Gaza during the assault on Israeli settlements on October 7. HAITHAM IMAD/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Internally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under intense scrutiny over intelligence failures surrounding the bloody October 7 attack.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu has already spoken quite frankly about this and called it a failure on his part,” Kirby said.
“They will take a look at this at the right time. They need to do that. Right now, however, the focus must be on ensuring that they can eliminate this truly genocidal threat against the Israeli people.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also weighed in on the “Jericho Wall” revelation on Friday, promising there would be “accountability” for the lead-up to the attack.
“Right now, the focus is on making sure they can do everything they can to ensure it doesn’t happen again,” Blinken said in Dubai ahead of the COP28 climate summit.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu several times since the war began. GPO/AMOS BEN-GERSHOM BROCHURE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Shortly after the October 7 attack, reports emerged that Egyptian intelligence officials had also warned their Israeli counterparts about an attack days before it occurred.
On November 24, Israel and Hamas agreed to a humanitarian pause in the war to allow aid to flow into the besieged Gaza Strip and allow hostages to be released.
That pause ended last Friday after Netanyahu accused Hamas of violating the terms of the agreement.
Israel then withdrew from further negotiations in Qatar, a third-party intermediary where many of Hamas’s top leaders live.
“There is no official denial,” Kirby explained. “That is because of Hamas. Hamas failed to present another list of women and children who should be released, and we know that they are holding more women and children.”
The bodies of people, some of them elderly, lie on a street after they were killed during a massive infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip on October 7. REUTERS
Kirby emphasized that the United States is still trying to get negotiations back on track.
“We would like that to happen today. But honestly, I don’t know,” he said when asked when negotiations could resume.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn