CNN –
The United States has gathered specific intelligence suggesting that senior Iranian government officials were caught off guard by Hamas’s bloody attack on Israel on Saturday, according to multiple sources familiar with the information.
The existence of the intelligence agency has cast doubt on the idea that Iran was directly involved in planning, providing or authorizing the operation, sources said.
The sources stressed that US intelligence agencies were not ready to draw a full conclusion about whether Tehran was directly involved leading up to the attack. They continue to search for evidence of Iranian involvement, which surprised both Israel and the United States.
And since the attack, government officials have noted that Iran has long-standing and significant support for Hamas, including weapons and funding, which undoubtedly helped Hamas to carry out such a massive operation.
But the sources said that intelligence – shared with lawmakers on Capitol Hill – led US analysts to make an initial assessment that the Iranian government did not play a direct role in the attack.
“Iran likely knew that Hamas was planning operations against Israel, but without the exact timing or scope of what happened,” a U.S. official said. “Although Iran has long supported Hamas with material and financial support, we have not seen anything at this time to suggest that Iran supports or is behind the attack.”
However, this person cautioned that it is premature to draw definitive conclusions based on what the US currently knows.
“We will be looking at more information in the coming weeks to inform our thinking on this issue, including whether there were at least some in their system who either had a clearer idea of what was coming, or even aspects contributed to the planning,” said the official.
Another source familiar with the intelligence told CNN’s Jim Sciutto that the timing of the attack caught Iran by surprise.
The sources did not provide further details about the nature of the intelligence, which a source briefed on the information said was extremely sensitive.
Some Israeli officials were more willing to attribute direct knowledge of the attacks to Iran.
A senior Israeli official briefed on Israeli intelligence told CNN’s Matthew Chance on Wednesday that Iran, which has long provided money and training to Hamas militants, may not have known the exact timing of the raids from Gaza but was “certainly aware” of the Hamas operation before it took place.”
For some U.S. and congressional officials, the search for direct evidence of Iranian involvement is a difference without a difference.
“I know the administration is sorry to blame Iran, but I think all roads lead to Iran,” House Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul, a Republican from Texas, said after a briefing on Wednesday to reporters. “We certainly don’t want it to escalate, but Iran is already involved.”
Tehran has no advisers on the ground in the blockaded Gaza Strip and does not command the group’s activities, according to former security officials and other regional analysts. But Iran has been Hamas’s main benefactor for years, providing it with tens of millions of dollars in weapons and components smuggled into Gaza, as well as broad technical and ideological support.
A source familiar with intelligence noted that while the group maintains its operational independence from Iran – making it plausible that the Iranian government may not have known about the attack in advance – Hamas would not function in its current form without Iranian support could exist. In other words, this person suggested, why should Tehran be less guilty if it did not know the details of the attack in advance, given that it enabled the activities of the group that carried it out?
“That’s why you can talk about it out of both corners of your mouth,” this person said.
Senior U.S. officials have said publicly for days that they have seen no signs that Iran was directly involved in the attack, although they have largely condemned Tehran as an “complicit” because of its historic support for Hamas.
“We are looking for more information,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. “But as I stand here today, while Iran plays this broad role – a sustained, deep and dark role in providing all this support and capabilities to Hamas – but with regard to this particularly atrocious attack on October 7th, we have This is currently not available.” Information.”
This story has been updated with additional reporting.