Report: Months before Oct 7, PM rejected Shin Bet chief’s call for proactive measures against Hamas

Three months before Hamas’s October 7 massacre, then-Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar sent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a classified document urging policy changes toward Gaza and outlining a proposed new strategic approach to Hamas and other threats, Channel 12 reports.

The report says Bar urged proactive measures against Hamas leaders in Gaza and proposed operational plans to separate Israel’s various security arenas, which were increasingly converging.

Netanyahu, reportedly angered by what he viewed as the Shin Bet head’s intrusion into policy matters, did not convene any discussions on the document.

According to the network, the document is likely to serve as key evidence in any future state commission of inquiry into the failures leading up to the attack.

Polls have consistently indicated a clear majority of Israelis support a state commission of inquiry, and Netanyahu himself backed an inquiry of this sort into the conduct of the previous government in 2022, but he has refused to establish such a commission to investigate the failures leading up to October 7, claiming such a commission, appointed by the judiciary, would be biased against his government.