Netanyahu said to have promoted ‘civilian arrangement’ with Hamas days before Oct. 7
PM’s office calls report a ‘continuation of efforts’ to distract from Shin Bet ‘failures’, but doesn’t address his alleged orders for handling border clashes 6 days before invasion
Six days before the Hamas onslaught that sparked the war in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Israel’s security chiefs to ratchet up efforts toward a “civilian arrangement” with Hamas following clashes on the Strip’s border, the Kan public broadcaster reported Thursday.
The Kan report followed a Channel 12 report last month — denied by Netanyahu’s office — that the premier had rejected a recommendation by Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar at the meeting to assassinate now-slain Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded the onslaught of October 7, 2023.
The October 1 meeting came after several Israeli airstrikes in response to mass riots on the Gaza border fence following a reduction in the flow of Qatari cash to the Strip.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, a summary of the meeting said Netanyahu had “concluded and directed” to advance a “civilian arrangement” with Hamas, to increase the aid flow to Gaza as a carrot-and-stick tactic, and to prepare to carry out assassinations in the Strip. It was unclear what a civilian arrangement would entail.
In a statement, Netanyahu’s office did not address the reported arrangement, but said the Kan report was a futile “continuation of efforts” to distract the public from “the massive failure of the Shin Bet and its head on October 7.”
According to the statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, the internal security agency said Israel’s handling of the border fence riots was a “‘success’ and ‘proof Hamas is deterred and uninterested in an escalation.'”
It was the Shin Bet, the statement said, that had “recommended the use of humanitarian privileges for Hamas,” while Netanyahu “warned of regional actors’ efforts to lead to an escalation in the near term” and directed security chiefs “not to ignore or give in to Hamas’s provocations.”
Netanyahu is thought to be seeking the ouster of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, and recently removed him from the team negotiating the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal.
Bar has reportedly vowed to stay on as Shin Bet chief until the return of all remaining hostages from Gaza, and the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into failures leading up to the Hamas onslaught.
Netanyahu and his government have repeatedly pushed back at efforts to establish a state commission of inquiry, Israel’s highest investigative authority. Such commissions are headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, with members being selected by the incumbent chief justice. Netanyahu, whose government has sought to weaken the judiciary, claimed on Monday that such a commission would be skewed against him.
Opposition leaders have accused Netanyahu — Israel’s prime minister since 2009, save for an 18-month stretch in 2021-2022 — of seeking to shirk responsibility for the Hamas onslaught when thousands of terrorists stormed southern Israel killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
In a probe published Tuesday, the Shin Bet said one of the factors that enabled the onslaught was the decade-long policy, initiated by Netanyahu, to arrange monthly Qatari deliveries of millions of dollars in cash to Hamas.
Netanyahu’s office — and Qatar — slammed the Shin Bet report. The premier has said the cash deliveries were recommended by Israel’s security forces and earmarked for specific purposes such as government salaries and welfare payments.
The Shin Bet report came some two weeks after the agency launched a probe into alleged commercial ties between Netanyahu’s top aides and Qatar. Last week, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ordered a criminal probe into the allegations.
