Israeli Shin Bet chief: We failed to predict Hamas attack on October 7
The head of the Israeli Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, acknowledged the failure of the Israeli intelligence services to predict Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
Israeli Channel 12 quoted Bar as saying, during a meeting with leaders of the Gaza envelope settlements about a month and a half ago, that the Shin Bet didn’t succeed in obtaining information indicating Hamas’s intentions to attack, and he offered his apologies to the envelope settlers.
During the meeting, which was also attended by the Shin Bet’s agent recruitment officer for the Gaza Strip and the Shin Bet’s southern district officer, Bar said that the Shin Bet’s capabilities in the Gaza Strip were limited before the war, acknowledging the failure at the level of the entire apparatus.
He added, “The entire security system has failed and I came here to ask for your forgiveness”.
Bar said that, contrary to the statements of other Israeli security leaders who believed that Hamas was deterred before the October 7 attack, no one from the Shin Bet said that Hamas was deterred.
He said, “We never said that Hamas was deterred… On the contrary, we pushed for initiating operations against the organization… Before October 7, we were restricted and the focus was only on assassinating senior leaders”.
