The US launched an official investigation into what could be one a major intelligence security lapses in the Western world, on the leak of documents that show plans for Israel’s retaliatory strike on Iran. A US official told The Associated Press that the documents appeared to be legitimate, while three other officials confirmed the US investigation into the leak.
The documents, marked top secret, first appeared on Telegram. The investigation intends to find if it was a security hack or an intentional leak by an insider. Investigating members are now determining who all had access to the leaked documents, the official told AP.
The documents, marked top secret and attributed to the US National Security Agency (NSA) and National US Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), showed Israel’s movement to ready for a military strike in response to Iran's October 1 ballistic missile attack.
This comes after the assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, and the US cautioning Israel to stop further military expansion in Lebanon in avoid to avoid a larger regional war. The Pentagon acknowledged reports of the leak in a statement, but provided no further comments.
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The documents first appeared via a Telegram channel on Friday, and resembled information gathered through satellite image analysis. Out of the two documents, one closely resembled the classified military documents from NGA in appearance, earlier leaked by Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira.
On Saturday, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced that Hamas is "still alive" despite the death of the group's chief Yahya Sinwar. This was the same day that Israel dropped leaflets over southern Gaza with a message, "Hamas will no longer rule Gaza."
Khan Younis residents conveyed that the leaflet also demanded the handing over of hostages. Those who complied “will be allowed to leave and live in peace," they said the leaflet read. Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya, in response, said that hostages will not be freed till the Gaza "aggression" ends.
On Saturday morning, a drone was launched at Benjamin Netanyahu's holiday residence in Israel when the Prime Minister and his wife were not home. No casualties were reported in the attack. Israel later attacked Gaza and Beirut, killing more than 100 people. Around 73 were killed in Gaza, according to figures released by Hamas media office.