NYT "US Has Supported Israel Since the Early Stages of the Israel-Hamas War"

Participation of Special Forces and CIA Agents

The United States has been supporting Israel in rescuing hostages and tracking Hamas leadership since the outbreak of the war between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas, the American daily The New York Times (NYT) reported on the 19th (local time).

According to the report, a so-called "Fusion Cells" (a cooperative body within the government consisting of multiple agencies for intelligence collection and analysis) composed of U.S. special forces and intelligence agents is carrying out these missions.

The U.S. Department of Defense quietly deployed dozens of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) troops to Israel a few days after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7 last year and took about 250 hostages to the Palestinian Gaza Strip. JSOC troops and CIA agents jointly undertook intelligence support missions for Israel. It is reported that U.S. intelligence helped identify the whereabouts of four hostages before Israeli special forces rescued them in Gaza in June.

U.S. support has focused not only on hostage rescue but also on tracking Hamas leadership. Senior U.S. officials said that U.S. intelligence helped track Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader known as the architect of the October 7 surprise attack.

On the 17th, the day after the Israeli military killed Sinwar in southern Gaza, U.S. President Joe Biden stated in a press release, "Immediately after the massacre on October 7, I directed special operations personnel and intelligence experts to work with Israeli counterparts to help locate and track Sinwar and other Hamas leaders hiding in Gaza." According to U.S. officials, senior White House officials, CIA Director William Burns, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin regularly met to discuss additional support measures to accelerate tracking Sinwar.

U.S. officials said that at least six MQ-9 Reaper unmanned attack drones carried out missions to locate hostages, monitor vital signs, and provide useful clues to the Israeli military. These drones can fly for up to 14 hours, conduct extensive surveillance, collect intelligence, and precisely strike targets with Hellfire missiles, earning them the nickname "assassins of the sky."

U.S. officials say the U.S. helped gather intelligence that narrowed the Israeli military's search area for Sinwar. A few weeks after Hamas killed hostages in tunnels in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies believed Sinwar was hiding in Rafah and focused on finding him there, which ultimately enabled the Israeli military to kill him.