The massive Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7 revealed a failure in Israel's intelligence gathering, House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner told CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.

The Ohio Republican congressman said that "there certainly is a gap that was unexpected with respect to Israel's intelligence gathering," adding that "when we saw the failures of Oct. 7, where they failed to see the emerging horrendous Hamas attack and the taking of hostages that resulted in what you're reporting, we wondered whether or not it was a lack of focus."

Turner emphasized that "now that the United States is actually working with Israel and trying to assist in locating Hamas and understanding Hamas' structure, we're actually understanding that Israel has a gap in ... capabilities."

The House Intelligence chair added that "because we saw a lack of response after the Hamas attack began to unfold, there also were concerns as to whether Israel was going to get to go into Gaza and to be able to locate and to dismantle Hamas."

However, he stressed on that point that "I think everyone's seeing [that the Israeli army is] progressing at a much faster rate than anyone had expected," although he said that there continues to be "concern and doubt."

When asked if it is a potentially successful goal to eliminate Hamas, Turner said that "with any terrorist group and organization, it's not just the individuals that are operating it that you have to look at. It's also its function, its structure, its finances, its weapons systems, its command and control. Those are things that certainly Israel has the ability and they are prosecuting the war to that."

He said that the Israel Defense Forces "can significantly diminish Hamas' ability to conduct attacks on Israel and also give the Palestinians an opportunity to bridge to some other form of government in Gaza."

Turner emphasized that "the Palestinians in Gaza are just as much a prisoner, and certainly victims of Hamas, as we're seeing with the effects on Israel."

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