The United States provided intelligence on the hostages ahead of Israel’s successful rescue operation on Saturday, according to American and Israeli officials briefed on the assistance.
A team of US hostage recovery officials stationed in Israel assisted the Israeli military’s efforts to rescue the four captives by providing intelligence and other logistical support, a US official said, speaking without attribution to discuss the delicate operation.
Intelligence collection and analysis teams from the United States and the United Kingdom have been in Israel throughout the war, helping Israeli intelligence collect and analyze information related to the hostages, some of them citizens of both countries, according to a senior official. Israeli defense official familiar with the situation. efforts to locate and rescue the hostages.
Two Israeli intelligence officials said U.S. military officials in Israel provided some of the information about the hostages rescued on Saturday.
Speaking in Paris after meeting with France’s Emmanuel Macron, President Biden said he welcomed “the safe rescue of four hostages who were returned to their families in Israel. “We will not stop working until all the hostages return home and a ceasefire is reached, and it is essential.”
The Pentagon and CIA have been providing information gleaned from drone flights over Gaza, communications intercepts and other sources on the possible location of the hostages. While Israel has its own intelligence, the United States and Britain have been able to provide intelligence from the air and cyberspace that Israel cannot collect on its own, the Israeli official said.
Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, celebrated the rescue and made a sideways reference to American help.
“The United States is supporting all efforts to secure the release of hostages still held by Hamas, including American citizens,” Sullivan said in a statement. “This includes through ongoing negotiations or other means.”
Sullivan added that the ceasefire proposal currently being discussed by negotiators from Hamas, Israel, Egypt, Qatar and the United States would be the way to bring the remaining hostages home.
“The hostage release and ceasefire agreement now on the table would guarantee the release of all remaining hostages along with security guarantees for Israel and aid for innocent civilians in Gaza,” he said.
U.S. officials have said their intelligence support to Israel focuses on locating hostages and information on Hamas’ top leaders. In large part, this is because American officials believe that the best way to persuade Israel to end the war is to recover its hostages and capture or kill Hamas’s top leaders.
The Israeli official said neither the American nor the British teams were involved in the planning or execution of the military operations to rescue the hostages. The Israelis, experts in hostage rescue, would have needed little support in tactical planning. But American and Israeli officials said the outside intelligence did provide added value.