Shin Bet chief says he’ll stay until hostages return and state probes Oct. 7 – report
Ronen Bar said to tell senior employees he takes responsibility for failures, as Netanyahu rejects state commission of inquiry and reportedly mulls plans to oust him
Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar said he does not plan on stepping down from his post until all the hostages are returned and a state commission is established to probe failures surrounding the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, Channel 12 reported Tuesday.
“I took responsibility and I intend to fulfill it, but there is significance to the timing” of his planned resignation, Bar told senior Shin Bet employees during a closed-door meeting in which he presented the internal security agency’s internal probe into the shock assault, according to the report.
The comments came amid reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to oust Bar. The premier recently removed Bar and Mossad chief David Barnea from heading the team negotiating the Gaza truce-hostage deal, over which Netanyahu’s right-wing flank has threatened to topple the government.
Opposition leaders have assailed the reported effort to oust Bar as a bid by the premier to lay the blame for the Hamas onslaught solely on Israel’s security establishment. IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy has resigned and will step down this week.
The premier — Israel’s political leader since 2009, except for an 18-month stretch in 2021-2022 — has rejected calls for a state commission of inquiry into the political echelon’s failures leading to October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
Channel 12 quoted Bar as indicating he would not resign until Israel secures the release of the 59 remaining hostages, including the remains of Lt. Hadar Goldin, who was killed in the 2014 Gaza war and whose body is held by Hamas.
“I am not satisfied with the return of 197 hostages. I am looking at the 59 who remain,” Bar was quoted as saying.
It was unclear why the Shin Bet chief referred to 197 returned hostages.
A total of 196 living and dead hostages have been returned to Israel, including the body of a soldier killed in 2014 and two civilians who entered the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Bar reportedly said he would work to ensure the establishment of a state commission of inquiry, which the government opposes.
“The moment I see that it is happening, I will want to hand the baton over to one of my excellent deputies,” said the Shin Bet chief, adding that he wouldn’t let outside actors impose his successor on the internal security agency.
State commissions of inquiry — Israel’s highest investigative authority — are headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, and their members are selected by the incumbent chief justice.
Netanyahu’s government does not recognize the selection in January of Chief Justice Isaac Amit. Justice Minister Yariv Levin did not sign the order accrediting Amit’s selection, and both Levin and Netanyahu boycotted Amit’s accession ceremony last month.
Speaking at the Knesset on Monday, Netanyahu said a state commission headed by the judiciary could not be trusted, in a speech that drew angry protests from families of October 7 victims, some of whom were violently prevented from attending by the Knesset guard.
Red-faced and shouting into the microphone, the premier called for an “objective, balanced, independent investigation… not a commission whose findings are predetermined.”
Days after the government was sworn in at the end of 2022, Levin presented a wide-ranging plan to weaken the judiciary, sparking months of mass anti-government demonstrations. Israel’s security chiefs, including Bar, warned that the internal discord put Israel in danger of attack.
Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon said on Friday that Bar’s ouster would have to be reviewed by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, whom Netanyahu’s allies have aimed to fire amid the judicial overhaul. Limon added that the Attorney General’s Office was unaware of any plans to fire the Shin Bet chief.
Sam Sokol contributed to this report.
