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Israel Online · Oct 7, 2026

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Former Mossad Official: Israel Did Not Need a Source Inside Hamas Leadership to Detect October 7 Preparations Oded Ailam, former head of the Mossad’s Counterterrorism Division, says one of the intelligence failures leading up to October 7 was Israel’s excessive reliance on technological intelligence while neglecting human sources. Ailam said Israel did not necessarily need an informant inside Hamas’s senior leadership to detect preparations for an attack. Even sources among bakers, mechanics or other ordinary workers in Gaza, he said, could have noticed unusual orders or activity that might have provided early warning signs.

*Former Mossad Official: Israel Did Not Need a Source Inside Hamas Leadership to Detect October 7 Preparations* Oded Ailam, former head of the Mossad’s Counterterrorism Division, says one of the intelligence failures leading up to October 7 was Israel’s excessive reliance on technological intelligence while neglecting human sources. Ailam said Israel did not necessarily need an informant inside Hamas’s senior leadership to detect preparations for an attack. Even sources among bakers, mechanics or other ordinary workers in Gaza, he said, could have noticed unusual orders or activity that might have provided early warning signs.

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