US Increased Intelligence Sharing With Israel to ‘Unprecedented’ Levels After October 7

 

The US also increased its own intelligence collection on Gaza

by Dave DeCamp April 1, 2024 at 4:26 pm ET 

CategoriesNewsTagsGaza, Israel

The US increased intelligence sharing with Israel to “unprecedented” levels under a secret memorandum issued in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

The intelligence sharing and US weapons shipments have supported and facilitated Israel’s destruction of Gaza and the mass killing of civilians. “We are experiencing unprecedented levels of intelligence coordination,” Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said last week.

The Journal report said there are growing concerns in Washington about the intelligence sharing with Israel since there’s very little oversight to see if it’s being used in strikes that kill civilians. “What I’m concerned about is making sure our intelligence sharing is consistent with our values and our national security interests,” said Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO).

Crow added that he was worried “what we’re sharing right now isn’t advancing our interests.”

On top of the increased intelligence sharing, the US also stepped up its own intelligence collection on Gaza and began flying MQ-9 Reaper drones for surveillance over the Strip. The Pentagon has insisted the intelligence being shared with Israel is only to help locate hostages, but US officials told CNN there’s no way of preventing Israel from using the intelligence to launch strikes.

“Once the US provides a piece of intelligence to Israel, it has no control over how Israel combines it with other information, and there’s nothing to stop Israel from using that information to target Hamas operatives,” the CNN report said.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Monday that the death toll in the US-supported Israeli attack on Gaza has reached 32,845 Palestinians, which is considered a low estimate since it doesn’t take into account the thousands missing and presumed dead under the rubble. The Health Ministry has consistently said about 70% of the casualties are women and children. UNICEF has said over 13,000 Palestinian children have been killed by Israel, a number that also doesn’t take into account the bodies of children under the rubble.

https://news.antiwar.com/2024/04/01/us-increased-intelligence-sharing-with-israel-to-unprecedented-levels-after-october-7/