Israel stopped monitoring Hamas' radio comms a year ago because they thought it was a waste of time: New York Times

Israel soldiers inspect burnt cars at the site of the Hamas terrorist attacks on the Nova music festival in southern Israel.

Amir Cohen/Reuters

• Israel stopped monitoring Hamas' radio communications last year, NYT reported.
• Israel saw an unusual level of Hamas activity in Gaza the night before the terror attacks, NYT said.
• But officials convinced themselves it was just a military exercise, the report said.

Israel's signals intelligence agency stopped monitoring Hamas' radio communications last year because they believed it was a waste of time, according to a report from The New York Times.

The report, which detailed Israeli intelligence and security failures that precipitated Hamas' deadly terror attacks earlier this month, said that Israeli officials also noticed an unusual level of Hamas activity in the Gaza Strip the night before the attacks. But they couldn't figure out if the Palestinian militant group was planning on starting a war or just conducting another military exercise, according to the report.

Eventually, according to The Times, Israeli officials convinced themselves it was just a nighttime exercise. But that assessment might have been different had they continued monitoring Hamas' hand-held radio communications, the report said.

The next day, on October 7, Hamas carried out a series of attacks in Israel that claimed more than 1,400 lives. Militants also kidnapped 239 people and took them across the border to Gaza, Israeli authorities have said.

Israel was monitoring other private channels that it knew Hamas was using in the weeks before the attacks. But according to The Times, the group misled Israeli officials about its plans by posting messages in those channels falsely claiming it was not preparing to attack.

On Monday, Israel's foreign ministry said that one of the captives, 23-year-old German-Israeli woman Shani Louk, was confirmed dead. Hamas has released four of the hostages so far.

Israel has carried out a devastating counterassault in response to Hamas' attacks. The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, said that more than 8,000 people in Gaza have been killed and 21,400 are injured, ABC News reported. The agency said that 70% of the casualties are children, women, or older people.

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