American MQ-9 Reapers like this one are provIding critical intelligence support to Israel’s hunt for Hamas hostages in Gaza. (Etsy)
US-Israel Intel Sharing: American intelligence helped Israel pull off its most daring hostage rescue since the 1976 raid to rescue Israeli civilians held by Palestinian terrorists at Entebbe airport in Uganda.
Details are still murky, but The Washington Post reported that a team of U.S. military and intelligence personnel working out of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem provided some of the information that helped the Israeli military plan the complex operation on June 8 to rescue four hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli commandos rescued the four hostages from two locations about 200 meters apart at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Both locations were breached simultaneously. The operation was conducted in broad daylight, a tactic that was intended to maximize surprise but also carried a high degree of difficulty and risk
IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the operation was “based on precise intelligence” and had been in the works since the hostages were located in May. Another IDF spokesman, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, said on X that the intelligence was at an “extremely high level” that allowed the military to build mock buildings and train the Yamam, Israel’s national counter-terrorism unit.
“The United States has been providing support to Israel for several months in its efforts to help identify the locations of hostages in Gaza and to support efforts to try to secure their rescue or recovery,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday. “I can only just say that we have generally provided support to the IDF so that we can try to get all of the hostages home, including the American hostages who are still being held.”
A Yamam commander, Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, was shot and killed during the operation. Gaza casualty numbers, which Hamas controls, are unreliable. However, it’s clear that many Hamas fighters were killed, and many civilians died in the crossfire.
According to the Post, the information provided by the Americans for Saturday’s rescue “appeared to be secondary to intelligence gathered by the Israelis.”
An American team has been in Israel since the war began in October and has shared information from U.S. drone surveillance, communications intercepts, and other sources.