A new report reveals that the United States underestimated Hamas by not considering it a direct threat to the country’s national security, so it decided to reduce its surveillance of the Palestinian terrorist group significantly.

According to what U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal, after the tragic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, intelligence agencies left the surveillance of Hamas in the background as they focused their efforts on the search for Al Qaeda leaders.

Despite having analysts, mostly from the CIA, following events in the Gaza Strip, the United States placed its confidence in Israel’s ability to address any potential threat from Hamas, virtually handing over responsibility to the Jewish state. However, following the recent attacks on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 30 Americans and the disappearance of 10 others, all indications are that the United States misjudged the threat posed by Palestinian terrorists.

The Biden Administration said the Hamas attack was not anticipated, but the United States may have neglected to focus on the conflict. This is reflected in an essay written by Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, shortly before the October 7 attacks, in which he downplayed tensions in the Gaza Strip.

“Although the Middle East remains beset with perennial challenges, the region is quieter than it has been for decades. The Israeli-Palestinian situation is tense, particularly in the West Bank, but in the face of serious frictions, we have de-escalated crises in Gaza and restored direct diplomacy between the parties,” Sullivan said in Foreign Affairs magazine.

However, CIA Director William Burns did warn in early 2023 that tensions between Israel and the Palestinians were rising and even mentioned the need to avoid potential “explosions of violence.”

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged there were security failures related to the Hamas attacks, Marc Polymeropoulos, a retired CIA operations officer, said the United States is also partly to blame. “Ceding the objective to the Israelis appears to have had consequences,” he said.