Western media reported that the United States and Israel are studying the possibility of sending multinational forces to the Gaza Strip, which may include the US army, after eliminating the Palestinian Hamas movement.
Several Western news and agencies said that the United States and Israel are studying options for the future of the Gaza Strip, including the possibility of forming a multinational force that could include US forces if the Israeli forces succeed in eliminating Hamas.
According to sources, both the United States and Israel are also studying the possibility of providing temporary control over the enclave to the countries of the region with the support of the forces of the United States, Britain, France and Germany, adding that Israel considers the possibility of sending peacekeeping forces to the Gaza Strip a matter worthy of study, but the idea of temporary management of the enclave under the auspices of the United Nations seems impractical as for Israel.
Washington won’t yet agree to the proposal though, to send forces to Gaza, as the US President considers this step dangerous and may be a risky measure politically.
On the other hand, the Wall Street Journal newspaper said, on Wednesday, that intelligence agencies in the United States stopped spying on Hamas and other Palestinian factions in the years following the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Instead, US intelligence focused its efforts on pursuing the leaders of al Qaeda and later ISIS, according to US officials whose names weren’t revealed.
This issue, according to US officials, was the result of US calculations that concluded that Hamas wouldn’t threaten the United States, in addition to the presence of other intelligence priorities.
Washington worked to transfer responsibility for tracking Hamas’ activities to Israel, due to its confidence that the Israeli intelligence services are strong and can detect any threat, according to US officials.
However, what happened on the morning of October 7, changed everything, and that it became clear that these estimates were very wrong, as these Israeli security services didn’t have the slightest information that Hamas was preparing to launch, nor capable to undertake such massive and sudden attack.
Israeli intelligence services, didn’t even managed to notice the movement of thousands of Hamas fighters within meters of its borders.
One of the US officials says, “It should have been a wise bet,” referring to the United States dependence on Israel.
US officials say that the United States miscalculated the threat facing US national security, especially since the Hamas attack resulted in the death and loss of dozens of Americans, in addition to forcing it to move war parts and equipment worth billions of dollars to the Middle East, in addition to the possibility of the outbreak of a regional war.
According to Marc Polymeropoulos, a former operations officer at the CIA, notes, “With regard to the intelligence failures, most of which fall on Israel, I think we have to acknowledge that we bear some responsibility for not knowing about this event (the massive Hamas attack)”.
He concluded that giving up on this goal (spying on Hamas) in favor of Israel had consequences.
According to current and former officials in intelligence agencies, especially the CIA, there were few analysts following events in the besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip, before the attack.
It relied on Israeli intelligence to infiltrate Hamas through human sources and electronic eavesdropping groups.
