PM: ‘It’s fact and not a conspiracy’ that Ronen Bar knew hours before that Oct. 7 invasion was likely, but didn’t wake me

After previously doing so anonymously, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims without evidence that Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar knew several hours before Hamas’s October 7, 2023, atrocities that an invasion by the terror group was likely but did not alert the premier.

“This is a fact and not a conspiracy,” says the statement from the premier’s office, asserting that at 4:30 a.m. that morning “it was already clear to the outgoing Shin Bet head that an invasion of the State of Israel was likely.”

“Why at that moment did he not wake up the prime minister? Why didn’t he warn the community heads in the Gaza periphery? Why was the prime minister’s military secretary only updated minutes before the start of the attack?”

The statement comes after Netanyahu acknowledged earlier this month that his intelligence officer received an IDF memo detailing suspicious Hamas activity three hours before the terror onslaught but did not pass it on. The Prime Minister’s Office argued at the time that this was justified given what it said was the document’s non-urgent framing.