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National Security Council spokesman John Kirby disclosed that the US intelligence community was not privy to a document allegedly outlining Hamas’ attack plans on Israel.

In a discussion on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Kirby responded to a question by Kristen Welker regarding a New York Times report, stating, “The intelligence community has indicated that they did not have access to this document; there are no indications at this time if they had any access to this document beforehand.”

The New York Times previously reported that Israel had prior knowledge of Hamas’ intentions to attack more than a year before the tragic incident on October 7, which resulted in over 1,200 Israeli deaths. The report, named “Jericho Wall,” allegedly detailed Hamas’ proposed attack and its potential destruction but was deemed “aspirational” by Israeli officials.

When pressed on whether the US should have had access to the document, Kirby highlighted the complexities of intelligence gathering, saying, “Intelligence is a mosaic and sometimes you know, you can fashion things together and get a pretty good picture. Other times, there’s pieces of the puzzle that are missing.” He also reiterated that the US intelligence community did not have advanced warning or knowledge of the document.

More on what the Times claimed:
The Times’ report indicated that Hamas planned to use rockets and drones to compromise Israel’s border security and had intentions to take hostages into Gaza, as outlined in a 2016 memo. These details closely matched the actual events of the October 7 attack.