Report: PM received warnings from security chiefs that Israel was exposed to attacks before Oct. 7

Channel 12’s “Uvda,” a program renowned for investigative reports, says that while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Sheba Hospital in July 2023 after having his pacemaker fitted, the head of Shin Bet Ronen Bar called him on a secure phone and told him: “I am giving you a strategic warning of war.”

“I can’t say when or how,” Bar reportedly went on, but Israel’s enemies were watching what was happening inside Israel amid the rift over the judicial overhaul, “and they identify weakness.” Bar urged Netanyahu to stop the overhaul legislation.

Also while he was in the hospital, IDF Chief Herzi Halevi, who had been scheduled to meet with him, sent him a letter in which he reportedly stated: “The IDF’s readiness is being rapidly hurt and recovering slowly. This is dangerous. What is happening now in Israel raises the chance that we will be attacked.” Halevi made clear his assessment in the letter, the “Uvda” report says, that the enemy would not forgive itself if it passed up on this opportunity.