US Intelligence Questions Iran's Involvement in Hamas Attack on Israel, NYT Reports

US intelligence gathered data suggesting that "Iran's top leaders were surprised" by Hamas's attack on Israel. This has raised doubts in the White House regarding Iran's involvement in planning the assault, as reported by The New York Times, citing several American officials.

The NYT's sources do not name the "key Iranian leaders," but clarify that these are individuals typically aware of operations tied to the Quds Force, the military branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Officers of the IRGC have reportedly been working since August with Hamas militants to plan aerial, ground, and naval incursions, while Iranian leaders have given the green light to Palestinian fighters, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing senior members of Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah.

On October 10, a senior intelligence official informed Congress members that the collected intelligence contradicts claims that Iran aided in planning Hamas’s assault, according to NYT sources. The newspaper's informants state that the US regularly monitors meetings between Quds Force and its allies, including Hamas leaders, but there is no intelligence evidence that the attack on Israel was discussed in those meetings. However, they do not rule out the possibility of other clandestine meetings about which intelligence is unaware.

According to the NYT's informants, intelligence continues to investigate and does not exclude the possibility that evidence of Iran's direct involvement in Hamas’s attack on Israel could be discovered.