Since the start of the October war in Gaza, the United States has been providing intelligence to Israel about the goings-on of the Hamas terrorist organization, according to a report by The Washington Post.
The newspaper reported that such assistance has included drone imagery, satellite mapping, communication intercepts, and the use of some of the most powerful artificial intelligence software that the Central Intelligence Agency has in its inventory.
The U.S. provided “capabilities to us that we never had before October 7,” an Israeli operative was quoted as telling the daily.
Citing current and former U.S. and Israeli officials, The Post discovered that the Pentagon planned for a potential operation themselves to free the eight American citizens who are being held captive but cancelled it for unknown reasons and instead decided to play a secondary role in the matter.
Washington’s assistance was described as pivotal in locating the four Israeli hostages who were rescued last week after being abducted from the Supernova music festival.
The report noted that it was the U.S. who told Jerusalem of the prisoner’s exact locations, underscoring some criticism by security professionals that the Jewish state may have an overreliance on technology instead of using traditional spy-network management.
Israeli officials also gave the Americans credit for helping them locate and recover the remains of several of their citizens who died while under detention.
Individuals from both countries confirmed that a lack of human intelligence used by the Israelis was a contributing factor in failing to detect the October 7 invasion of southern Israel and the subsequent rampage that followed.
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