Shin Bet Chief Admits Agency Failed to Predict Hamas Attack

Jerusalem, 16 October, 2023 (TPS) -- Ronen Bar, director of the Israel Security Agency, or Shin Bet, took responsibility on Monday for his part in failing to provide adequate warning for Hamas’s surprise attack on Oct. 7.

In the letter Bar sent on Sunday night to Shin Bet employees and their families, he wrote: “Despite a series of actions we carried out, unfortunately, on Saturday we were unable to generate sufficient warning that would allow us to foil the attack.

“As the one who is at the head of the organization—the responsibility for this is on me. There will be time for investigations—now we are fighting,” he added.

Bar said that Shin Bet forces displayed “courage and fighting spirit” as they immediately engaged the enemy without hesitation. “We lost 10 of our best men; many of us were wounded,” he wrote.

He said the agency had set up a special department, together with the Israel Defense Forces, to recover abductees and missing persons.

“We are in a war, not a round. A round is won with a picture of victory and in silence. A war is ended by conquering and changing the situation. There is no border limit. There is no time limit. Until the end,” Bar wrote.

On Thursday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi also gave a public mea culpa, admitting that the army failed to protect Israel’s citizens and properly guard the border fence with the Gaza Strip in a speech to reporters on Thursday.

The failure of Israel’s security establishment enabled hundreds of terrorists to stream through the fence on Oct. 7 and wreak havoc in Israeli communities in the western Negev, killing at last count more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and wounding thousands more.

To date, more than 150 hostages are being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.