"US Intelligence Warns of Impending Violence as Israel-Hamas Conflict Escalates"

The US intelligence community, including the CIA, received multiple assessments from Israel warning of an increased risk of violence in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the weeks leading up to the recent Hamas attack. The assessments, which did not provide tactical details, indicated that Hamas was poised to escalate rocket attacks and that there was a growing possibility of violence. However, the assessments did not predict the scale and brutality of the attack that occurred on October 7. Middle Eastern allies also repeatedly warned the US and Israel of the dangerous situation, but their concerns were not heeded. US officials and lawmakers believe that Israel's failure to predict the attack was due to a lack of imagination and complacency about the threat posed by Hamas.