‘We could have prevented it’: Shin Bet chief highlights agency’s October 7 failures in Memorial Day address

At a Memorial Day ceremony for slain members of the Shin Bet, agency chief Ronen Bar vows that the security service will learn from its failures in the lead-up to Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught.

“It’s a difficult day for every bereaved family, it’s a difficult day for every citizen, it’s a difficult day for every Shin Bet employee, it’s also a difficult day for me personally,” Bar says.

Ten members and veterans of the Shin Bet were killed since last Memorial Day, all in the October 7 attack.

Bar says the Shin Bet failed to provide its vaunted security umbrella for the nation on October 7.

“We all feel the loss, the feeling that we could have prevented it, and as the head of the agency and responsible for the agency’s activities, I feel it perhaps more than anyone,” Bar continues.

He says the Shin Bet is undertaking an “in-depth” investigation of its role in the October 7 failures.

“A painful and significant investigation. We will learn from this and correct what is required. This is our duty to the people of Israel and this is our duty to the fallen. Without the public’s trust in the state institutions and us, we have no right to exist,” Bar says.

Bar says that the agency’s role in the war “is not over yet.”

“We will not rest until we return all 128 hostages home, and the four who were there before. Those who are alive and those who are not. All of them. Because this is the real difference between us and them: We will sacrifice our lives for the citizens, they will sacrifice the lives of citizens for themselves,” he adds.