Emily Rose
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s top security agency ignored signs of Hamas’ attacks in October 2023 and was fooled into believing that militant groups don’t want to go all out, the agency reported in one of its own investigations into Israel’s most devastating security failures.
Shin BET’s report was released on Tuesday five days after the military released its findings, saying it had greatly underestimated Hamas’ capabilities and had “failed to protect Israeli civilians.”
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According to Israel Tales, Hamas fighter jets from Gaza attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and hijacking more than 250 hostages.
Humanitarian health officials said more than 48,000 people have been killed in Israel’s war against Gaza since then, with the small enclave being mostly demolished and 2.3 million of its people displaced, according to Palestinian health officials. About 400 Israeli soldiers were also killed.
A fragile ceasefire has been held in Gaza since January 19.
A summary of the published Shin Bet investigation says that if “behaviors were different before (Hamas) attacks and in the years that night… it would be killed.”
“This is not what we expect of ourselves and the public from us,” the report said.
Both investigations were published in calls within Israeli opposition and civil society to conduct a national investigation into the government’s failure to conduct a single-day failure in modern Israeli history.
Shortly after the war began, Israel’s army and its main intelligence agencies admitted that they had failed to foresee the lightning strikes of thousands of Hamas-led gunmen.
The Israeli military’s investigation focused on tactics, combat and intelligence failures, before, during and after days.
But despite repeated calls for a nationwide national survey by Benjamin Netanyahu, so far, political institutions have avoided estimates.
Netanyahu said in a fierce parliamentary debate on Monday that an investigation will eventually be conducted, but must be “objective…, balanced and unreliable”, on the scheduled findings.
Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar said he would resign and be responsible for the failure to protect Israeli civilians.
Some Israeli media said Shin’s findings have been submitted to the Netanyahu office, which did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
(Reported by Emily Rose; Edited by Mark Heinrich)
