Report: Netanyahu opted against targeting Hamas leaders weeks before Oct. 7

Weeks before Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was told by Shin Bet officials that Israel could kill Hamas’s leaders in Gaza, but declined to order the strikes, Channel 12 reports.

The report also said that at the same time, Netanyahu ordered the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) to explore providing Qatari-funded economic benefits to the terror group in exchange for quiet.

The network, citing a senior official who attended the meeting, says Netanyahu raised targeted killings at a September 14, 2023, pre-Rosh Hashana event with Shin Bet brass, a day after Palestinians protested along the Gaza border and Netanyahu warned that war with terror groups in the Gaza Strip could break out “at any moment.”

Then-Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar responded that Hamas leaders could be killed in their offices in Gaza, but Netanyahu reportedly said such an airstrike should be carried out only after a “major attack”; otherwise, “something small” would be preferable, according to the report.

At the same time, COGAT met Qatari envoy Mohammed al-Emadi at Netanyahu’s direction to work toward providing economic benefits for Hamas in return for calm, Channel 12 reports.

The Hamas-led October 7 attack, the worst one-day attack in Israel’s history, took place three weeks later.

Netanyahu’s office declines to comment on the report.

The report comes a day after Bar filed a defamation suit against Netanyahu for NIS 3 million ($970,000) over the premier’s claims that the former Shin Bet chief failed to warn him of the impending attack.

Bar’s lawsuit details warnings and recommendations for action against Hamas that he says Netanyahu disregarded.

In the suit, Bar said that “an unusual message was received from the enemy” on September 14 and that he updated Netanyahu about it, although he did not expand on what that message was.