Top Israeli Intel Unit Wasn’t Operational on October 7 Due to Personnel Decision
The military’s vaunted Unit 8200 signals intelligence unit was not operational near the Gaza border on the morning of October 7 due to a two-year-old decision to reduce personnel and halt operations overnight and on weekends, a new report alleged Monday, November 27.
The move, detailed by the Israeli public broadcaster, left the army without a key asset for wiretapping and code decryption, possibly adding to the confusion and chaos that delayed an effective military response to the terror onslaught on October 7.
According to the broadcaster, following private consultations, a high-ranking officer within the Israel Defense Force’s Intelligence Corps reduced the unit’s manpower two years ago after concluding that intelligence-gathering methods utilized by 8200 would not help detect a threat from Gaza in real-time.
Further, according to the report, while Unit 8200 alone couldn’t have prevented the October 7 attack had it been operational during the early hours of the morning, its members would have been able to provide a clearer picture of what was unfolding during the first hours of the onslaught and could have potentially located Hamas’s elite Nukhba forces as they moved across southern Israel, under the cover of thousands of rockets, slaughtering people indiscriminately as they went.
In the weeks following October 7, several reports have attested that senior IDF officials, including those from 8200, ignored warnings from subordinates regarding suspicious activity along the Gaza border. (TOI /VFI News)