The CIA is collecting information on Hamas leaders and the location of hostages in Gaza and shares its intelligence with Israel, US officials told The New York Times.

Immediately after the October 7th attack, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan sent orders to the CIA and Defense Department to create a new task force to increase intelligence efforts on Hamas leaders, including the interception of communications among Hamas officials. The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence also raised the Hamas terror group to level two priority, only one level below powerful international adversaries that could pose a direct threat to the US, such as Iran, China, Russia, and North Korea.

Prior to October 7th, Hamas was only a level four priority for US intelligence agencies, meaning that the US did not allocate significant resources to collecting intelligence on the group and relied on Israel to share relevant information.

The report says that it is unclear how significant the US intelligence is to Israel, adding that the US did not provide any intelligence on deputy Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri, who was eliminated in Beirut by an airstrike attributed to Israel earlier this month.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)