JERUSALEM: A senior Israeli official on Saturday admitted “mistakes” in intelligence assessments ahead of a brutal Hamas attack last weekend that took the country by surprise.
Palestinian militants early October 7 launched a multi-pronged assault, breaching the Gaza border barrier and targeting southern Israeli communities and army bases.
“It’s my mistake, and it reflects the mistakes of all those making (intelligence) assessments,” National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi told a press briefing when asked about his recent remarks predicting no Hamas aggression.
“We really believed that Hamas learned the lesson from” its last major war with Israel in 2021, Hanegbi said.
More than 1,300 civilians and security forces have been killed since the attack began, according to Israeli officials, and at least 120 have been seized by militants and believed to be held captive in Gaza.
Hanegbi rejected negotiations toward any prisoner swap deal with Hamas.
“There’s no way to negotiate with an enemy we have sworn to obliterate,” he said.
Relentless Israeli air strikes on the blockaded Palestinian enclave over the past week have killed upwards of 2,200 including at least 600 children, Hamas officials said.
Israel admits intelligence ‘mistakes’ in failing to predict Hamas attacks
https://arab.news/24qm2
Israel admits intelligence ‘mistakes’ in failing to predict Hamas attacks
- "It's my mistake, and it reflects the mistakes of all those making (intelligence) assessments," said National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi
- Israel admits intelligence ‘mistakes’ in failing to predict Hamas attacks
Take back and prosecute your jailed Daesh militants, Iraq tells Europe
RAQQA: Baghdad on Friday urged European states to repatriate and prosecute their citizens who fought for Daesh, and who are now being moved to Iraq from detention camps in Syria.
Europeans were among 150 Daesh prisoners transferred so far by the US military from Kurdish custody in Syria. They were among an estimated 7,000 militants due to be moved across the border to Iraq as the Kurdish-led force that has held them for years relinquishes swaths of territory to the advancing Syrian army.
In a telephone call on Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said European countries should take back and prosecute their nationals.
An Iraqi security official said the 150 so far transferred to Iraq were “all leaders of the Daesh group, and some of the most notorious criminals.” They included “Europeans, Asians, Arabs and Iraqis,” he said.
Another Iraqi security source said the group comprised “85 Iraqis and 65 others of various nationalities, including Europeans, Sudanese, Somalis, and people from the Caucasus region.”
They all took part in Daesh operations in Iraq, he said, and were now being held at a prison in Baghdad.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that “non-Iraqi terrorists will be in Iraq temporarily.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces jailed thousands of militant fighters and detained tens of thousands of their relatives in camps as it pushed out Daesh in 2019 after five years of fighting.
