Report: Shin Bet head asked Netanyahu to OK killing Sinwar on Oct. 1, 2023; PMO: Complete lie

Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to approve the assassination of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar on October 1, 2023, six days before the Hamas invasion and slaughter, Channel 12 reports. But Netanyahu ignored the request, it says.

The Prime Minister’s Office immediately denies the report, and says Netanyahu at that meeting discussed a scenario of targeted killings in Gaza while Bar actually asked that Israel provide civilian incentives and benefits to Hamas to buy calm.

The Channel 12 report says it draws its material from the Shin Bet’s own investigations into its October 7 failures, and that the probes show the security service to have utterly misjudged Hamas’s intentions.

It says the Shin Bet did not regard the Hamas Nukhba forces that led the invasion as a strategic threat, believed the border fence was a potent defense against Hamas ground forces, was much more concerned about the potential threat of Hamas naval forces among other dangers, and did not even realize that the attack was looming when indications mounted in the hours before Hamas went to war.

Successive Shin Bet chiefs Yoram Cohen, Nadav Argaman and Bar did recognize that Hamas was growing stronger, however, and for years urged Netanyahu to green light the killings of Sinwar and Muhammad Deif, who were both killed by Israel last year. “But Netanyahu preferred the IDF’s stance, of quiet in return for quiet,” the report claims. The security service also bitterly opposed Netanyahu’s policy of encouraging Qatar to pump money into Gaza, the report says.

In the year ahead of October 7, Bar also sought to warn Netanyahu of the dangers of the rift in Israel over the judicial overhaul, and the potential emboldening of Israel’s enemies, but Netanyahu ignored him, the TV report claims.

The Shin Bet held a discussion in early September 2023 on the issue of readiness for a campaign in Gaza, which was also attended by IDF operations officers. The possibility of a Hamas invasion was not discussed, but it was concluded that the Strip and the West Bank were heating up and that readiness had to be raised, the report says.

Bar also sought a meeting of security chiefs with Netanyahu. In mid-September, he warned that “we are on the way to a multifront campaign.”

On October 1, Netanyahu did hold a meeting of security chiefs, the report goes on, “at which Bar recommended killing Sinwar. “The prime minister ignored” the request.

The Prime Minister’s Office calls the report “a complete lie” and says “the opposite is the case.”

In a statement, it confirms that a meeting of security chiefs was held on October 1, headed by Netanyahu, regarding Gaza. At that meeting, it says, Bar “recommended giving civilian benefits to Hamas in return for buying calm.”

Bar actually said that “targeted strikes should not be carried out in Gaza and Lebanon in order to prevent another round [of war] in Gaza,” the PMO states.

By contrast, Netanyahu at the meeting recommended “a scenario of escalation by eliminating the Hamas leadership in Gaza.”

The statement adds that on October 3, Bar delivered the firm assessment that Hamas was seeking to avoid another round of conflict against Israel and that calm could be maintained for some time “if Israel gave Gaza an economic horizon.”

Netanyahu has been widely reported to be preparing to fire Bar, and to have removed him from the team negotiating the ongoing hostage-ceasefire deal.