The failure of those systems to deliver advanced warning of Saturday's Hamas attack, however, represents a failure of intelligence likely to be studied and discussed for years. “There will have been warning signs,” one former Western intelligence official said on condition of anonymity. In concealing their attack, Hamas will have been helped by conditions of Gaza Strip, where Hamas seized power in 2007 and some 2.3 million people are hemmed in behind a 51-km border. Israel may still fear the Hamas assault from Gaza is a precursor to that. Since the Hamas attack, Russia has reasserted its support for an independent Palestinian state and called for a ceasefire while Israeli officials have criticised China directly for failing to condemn Hamas.

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Persons: Robert Bauer, Eyal Zamir, Jacob Dallal, Benjamin Netanyahu’s, –, Israel, Assad, David Barnea, Sergey Lavrov, Mark Heinrich Our Organizations: Hamas, NATO, Israeli Defence Ministry, United, United Arab Emirates, Islamic, U.S, Russian, Thomson, Reuters Locations: Israel, Gaza, U.S, Ukraine, Washington, Taiwan, Iranian, Lebanon, Egypt, Qatar, ” Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa, Saudi Arabia, United Arab, Iran, Tehran, Israel’s, Syria, Islamic State, Russia, China, Turkish, Kurdish, Moscow, Beijing