The head of the national intelligence service of Israel announced his resignation on the failure of the agency to warn of the deadly attack on October 7, 2023 by Hamas.
Shin Bet leader Ronen Bar said that he would move on June 15, following a dispute with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who tried to talk about him last month.
Bar made this announcement on Monday during a commemorative event for the FARK Shin Bet soldiers.
“After years on many fronts, one night on the southern front, the sky fell,” said Bar in reference to the attack, which killed more than 1,200 people in southern Israel and sparked the War of Israel-Hamas in Gaza. “All the systems collapsed. The Shin Bet has not given a warning either.”
All those who have failed to stop the attack should bow in their heads “humility before the dead, the dead, the wounded, the kidnapped and their families and act accordingly,” he said at the event.
Netanyahu tried to shoot the bar last month for what he said was a crisis of confidence surrounding the attack on Hamas.
But this decision caused an uproar at the national level because the bet of Tibia probes the links between the Netanyahu office and Qatar, a mediator between Hamas and Israel during the Gaza War.
The Shin Bet examines the allegations according to which advisers close to Netanyahu have acted as paid consultants for Qatar – who has no complete diplomatic relations with Israel – while working for the Prime Minister. Netanyahu was not directly involved in the investigation.
The Supreme Court of Israel froze the dismissal of the bar following several judicial disputes against this decision and called on the sides to reach a compromise.
In his speech on Monday, Bar said that the legal proceedings did not concern “not my personal case but on the independence of the next chiefs of the Millen-Pari”.
Legal battle
Bar filed a document with the Supreme Court last week which accused Netanyahu of having tried to exploit the power of the tibia for a political and personal gain.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said that a “deep state” of officials and non -elected judges were about to overthrow it. Civil society organizations say that the chief of Tibia is supposed to be an independent figure and fear that the departure of Bar will open the way to the Prime Minister to appoint an ally to the sensitive post.
The Shin Bet is responsible for monitoring Palestinian militant groups, and Bar previously recognized the failures of its agency in the prevention of the October 7 attack in Hamas.
Netanyahu blamed army failures and security agencies and has repeatedly resisted calls for an official commission of inquiry.
Bar is one of the many Israeli security personalities to resign or to be dismissed in the aftermath of the Hamas attack – including the former Minister of Defense and Head of the Army.
ADVERTISEMENTThis month, Netanyahu moved to appoint a former Navy commander as a new shin Bet chief. The appointment was canceled less than 24 hours later after being known that the candidate had participated in anti-government demonstrations.
