Israeli security forces blocking a street in East Jerusalem following an access restriction to the al-Aqsa mosque. (Credit: AFP)
Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, admitted Tuesday to “failing” in its mission, saying it was unable to prevent the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Shin Bet did not prevent the Oct. 7 massacre,” its chief, Ronen Bar, said in a statement marking the release of an internal investigation into the attack. “The investigation reveals that if Shin Bet had acted differently, both in the years preceding the attack and on the night it occurred […] the massacre could have been prevented,” Bar added. “We failed.”
The investigation, conducted by the Israeli security service itself, found that the policy of maintaining “calm” in Gaza — particularly through the transfer of Qatari funds to Hamas’s military wing — was among the key factors that allowed the group to prepare for the Oct. 7 assault, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
The findings, which analyzed Shin Bet’s performance on Oct. 7 and in the years leading up to the attack, indicate that the agency had previously recommended preventive measures against Hamas and cautioned against being drawn into repeated rounds of fighting. In September 2023, a month before the attack, Shin Bet had noted an “unstable period” and recommended targeted assassinations of high-ranking Hamas figures in Gaza.
Sources close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to the report’s publication by saying its conclusions “do not reflect the scope of the immense failure and negligence of the agency.”
“The Shin Bet chief completely failed in his handling of Hamas in general, and of Oct. 7 in particular,” the statement said, blaming Bar for misinterpreting intelligence in the days leading up to the attack.
“This was evident in the assessment of Oct. 1, where he recommended granting Hamas civil benefits in exchange for maintaining calm, and in the intelligence briefing on Oct. 3 to the prime minister, where he firmly stated that Hamas sought to avoid conflict with Israel,” the sources said. They also claimed Bar refrained from waking Netanyahu on the night of the attack, calling that decision “the most basic and obvious one imaginable.”
