A published summary of the Shin Bet’s investigation said that if it “had acted differently in the years preceding the [Hamas] attack and on the night of the attack … the massacre would have been prevented”.
“This is not the standard that we expected from ourselves, and the public from us,” the report said.
Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar has taken responsibility for failing to prevent the attack but has not resigned.
Ronen Bar, chief of Israel’s domestic security agency, says he will carry the burden of the failures.Credit: AP
“As the head of the organisation, I will carry this heavy burden on my shoulders for the rest of my life,” he said.
Both investigations were published as calls grow from within the Israeli opposition and civil society for a national inquiry into the government’s failures on October 7, 2023.
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Soon after the start of the war, Israel’s military and its main intelligence agencies admitted they had failed to foresee the lightning attack by thousands of Hamas-led gunmen, leading to the commission of the two reports.
The Israeli military’s findings focused on tactical, battle and intelligence failures before, during and in the days after the attack. The armed forces chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, announced his resignation in January, taking responsibility for the army’s failure.
But the political establishment has so far avoided a reckoning despite repeated calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold a full national inquiry.
In a fiery parliamentary debate on Monday, Netanyahu said an inquiry would be held eventually but it must be “objective … balanced and not dependent” on predetermined findings.
Some Israeli media outlets said the Shin Bet’s findings had been submitted to Netanyahu’s office, which did not respond to a request for comment.
Palestinian Jori Abu Tueima, 7, injured in an Israeli ground and air offensive on Gaza, sits in an ambulance as the first group of Gaza children arrives in Jordan for medical treatment on Tuesday.Credit: AP
Meanwhile, Economy Minister Nir Barkat said Israel’s defence policy has taken on a black-or-white approach, and the country won’t be willing to compromise security on any of its borders.
“There’s no more grey,” he told Bloomberg TV in an interview. “The strategy that Israel is working upon is ‘be really good with the good guys and bad with the bad guys’.”
To that end, he added: “Our next steps will depend on the attitudes of Palestinians. If they threaten the Jewish State, they will be made to look like Gaza. If they want to join the Abraham Accords, they’ll have the opportunity to resemble Dubai.”
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Barkat spoke just days after Israel halted all humanitarian aid and other imports to the war-shattered Gaza Strip as a six-week truce with Hamas expired on Sunday.
The minister didn’t comment on whether Israel would resume fighting, but said US President Donald Trump was “very supportive of Israel’s bold moves and has told it ‘do what you need to do to win the war’. To stop the violence in Gaza and get our hostages back.”
Arab leaders met on Tuesday to discuss a possible solution for rebuilding Gaza after Trump repeatedly demanded that Egypt, Jordan and other countries take in the larger part of the enclave’s population. Middle Eastern countries have strongly rejected that idea and aim to come up with a counter-proposal.
