Israel's security service takes blame for Hamas attack: 'Failed to provide sufficient warning'

Israel's domestic security service chief on Monday took responsibility for the intelligence failures that allowed Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, to carry out the deadliest attack on the Jewish state. Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet, said that the lack of warning for the Hamas attack was his responsibility.

"Despite a series of actions we undertook, regrettably, on Saturday, we failed to provide a sufficient warning that would have allowed us to thwart the attack. As the head of the organization, the responsibility for this falls on me," he said in a letter to the organisation's employees as per Israel-based Haaretz.

Shin Bet is Israel's domestic intelligence agency. Bar said there would be a time for investigations but right now, they were at war. He also said that the agency lost ten of its people, many were injured, and some service members lost their loved ones.

Israel's security agencies like Mossad and Shin Bet are known for their intelligence-gathering capabilities but Hamas' attack last Saturday shocked many experts, who could not believe that a militant organisation could pull off an assault of this nature. 

The New York Times last Friday reported that Hamas knew of secrets of the Israeli military and they had a colour-coded map of one of their bases. "The 10 gunmen from Gaza knew exactly how to find the Israeli intelligence hub — and how to get inside," the report said. 

According to the report, Hamas used drones to destroy key surveillance and communications towers along the border with Gaza. With explosives and tractors, Hamas blew open gaps in the border barricades, allowing 200 attackers to enter in the first wave and another 1,800 later that day, the report said citing officials.

Emil Kastehelmi, an open-source intelligence analyst, said that one strange feature of the Hamas attack on Israel was that Israeli intelligence appeared to have majorly failed to detect such a massive operation. He said there was also the possibility of successful deception but such an operation required a great deal of preparation and coordination, "which one would have expected Israel to notice". "It seems that in multiple locations, the Israeli armed forces have been caught by total surprise."