Ex-MI6 chief says failure to predict Hamas attack due to ‘lack of imagination’

A ‘failure of imagination’ by Israeli intelligence led to Hamas attack, claims former MI6 chief

Sir Alex Younger, the former head of MI6, has said Israel’s failure to pre-empt Hamas’ attack stemmed from a ‘failure of imagination’.

At least 2,300 people have been killed on both sides since Hamas militants stormed through a border fence on Saturday and massacred hundreds of Israelis in their homes, on the streets and at a music festival.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s The Today Podcast, Sir Alex said he believed there were two main reasons why Israel’s intelligence community had no knowledge of the impending attack.

‘The first is, the really big failures that are labelled as intelligence failures… are in fact failures of imagination,’ he said.

‘9/11 classically was that. The assumption was not that we were vulnerable to anything in terms of this type of attack. The assumption was that it essentially wasn’t possible.

‘Absolutely, in this case, the received assumption, demonstrated through (Israel’s) actions, particularly the deployment of the IDF (Israel Defence Forces), make it really clear that the received assumption was that the threat from Hamas in Gaza was quiescent.

‘And it is my assumption, therefore… that there will have been data breaking through which probably could have been interpreted differently and certainly would be, with hindsight, but people were just not looking at it in that way.’

Sir Alex also said Israel may have over-relied on its technological systems for security.

‘Secondly, though, it’s evident that there was a structural problem,’ he said.

‘And if I can hazard a guess at what that would be, it would be… (Israel) would have an over-reliance on a set of technology systems that provide a full sense of security.

‘First of all, the Iron Dome I think is an incredible system, but psychologically, it immures you to fear of what would otherwise be uncertain and frightening.

‘Then, the extraordinary array of sensors designed to detect movement across the (Gaza) border, similarly, to my mind are only ultimately effective… if used alongside efforts to gain a set of human insights.

‘The technology’s good at revealing capabilities and actions, it’s not good at revealing intentions.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

‘The really big failures that are labelled as intelligence failures… are in fact failures of imagination,’ he told BBC Radio 4.