The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) was unaware of the Nova music festival taking place at the Re’im parking area on the night between October 6 and 7, 2023, Haaretz reported Monday, citing an internal investigation conducted within the agency.
According to the report, a Shin Bet representative took part at least twice in joint meetings with the police and the IDF in the days leading up to the attack, but for reasons that remain unclear, did not pass the information about the mass event on to the service’s leadership.
As a result, the Nova festival was not included in the Shin Bet’s situational assessments on the night the terror attack began.
According to various sources, the IDF also did not update the Shin Bet about the festival’s proximity to the border. The service’s operations room learned about the event only around three hours after the attack began, when numerous reports of casualties started arriving from the area.
A security source said that had the information been known to the relevant authorities beforehand - or at least during the night - it might have influenced decision-making processes both within the Shin Bet and across the entire security establishment.