Israel's security officials in 2018 discovered secret documents detailing what amounted to a private equity fund used by Hamas to finance its terror operations, The New York Times reported.
The documents, discovered on the computer of a senior Hamas official, revealed assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars and spanned several countries and industries.
Though the agents who obtained the documents shared them both in Israel and in Washington, nothing happened, the report noted.
The NYT investigation also showed that US and Israeli officials "failed to prioritize financial intelligence — which they had in hand — showing that tens of millions of dollars flowed from the companies to Hamas at the exact moment that it was buying new weapons and preparing an attack."
Now, officials from both nations admit that it was this money - which at its peak was valued at about half a billion USD - that helped Hamas lay the groundwork for the October 7 massacre.
"Everyone is talking about failures of intelligence on Oct. 7, but no one is talking about the failure to stop the money," Udi Levy, a former chief of Mossad’s economic warfare division, told NYT. "It’s the money — the money — that allowed this."
When Hamas sold off some of their assets, they raised over $75 million - which was used to rebuild the terror group's military infrastructure.