Three years after the Hamas attack, questions still linger over who knew what before the attack and what those who were exposed to the intelligence held by the security establishment did with it. Arutz Sheva spoke with former senior Shin Bet official Micha Kobi about the intelligence that he says was in the possession of the Shin Bet and its director at the time, Ronen Bar.
Kobi described his feelings each year on the anniversary of the outbreak of the war, recalling the horrific scenes and brutal acts committed by Hamas Nukhba terrorists and civilian residents of Gaza that he saw on television on the morning of the attack.
“I told myself that these people must be eliminated one by one. None of them should be allowed to live, and there certainly should not be a situation in which a judge visits them in prison and allows them five meals a day. That is not what I had hoped for," he said.
Addressing the question of what the Shin Bet knew before the Hamas attack, Kobi said: “There is no doubt that an organization such as the Shin Bet, which is supposed to provide intelligence warnings and intelligence assessments before a war, knew many things beforehand and afterward. It knew about the exercises to capture Division 36, as we all saw, and also about exercises to capture communities, where all the signs were in Hebrew. We saw these things, and intelligence knew many other things regarding the timing and additional details."
“There is no possibility in the world that the Shin Bet did not know that a war was coming, but in my assessment, there was the 'conceptzia. I am combining facts in this assessment without getting into conspiracy theories. Ronen Bar is the person who failed more than anyone else at that time, and he admitted it when he said that he was at fault and took responsibility. Taking responsibility is not enough. Those responsible must be put on trial, whether it is Ronen Bar, Herzi Halevi and others who held senior positions in the military and the Shin Bet, and if it is the political echelon, then it too."
Kobi recalled an interview given by senior Shin Bet official Mira Shoshani, who headed the division responsible for thwarting Hamas activity in Israel and abroad.
“I know her personally. She is a good and worthy professional who let a few words slip during the interview. Her story as a bereaved mother is extremely sad, but she said, ‘What happened to Yahya Sinwar? After all, there was an arrangement.’ That says everything. Ronen Bar was trapped in the misconception of an arrangement with Yahya Sinwar - a man whose word must never be trusted, the cruelest man in the world, the man who devised the plan to annihilate the Jews of the Gaza border communities. And they pursued an arrangement with him. That is according to Shoshani’s remarks."
Kobi also addressed Shoshani’s comments about a conversation she had with the operations room on the morning of the attack. According to him, she said that she heard the sounds of gunfire and explosions, and when she asked what was happening, she was told: “It’s an exercise."
“In my opinion, he said it euphemistically because of Ronen Bar’s assessment that they were preparing for an exercise," Kobi said. “The conceptzia, combined with Egyptian intelligence that reinforced it, is what caused our disaster. Add to that the fact that Ronen Bar and Herzi Halevi did not report a word about what happened on October 6 or about the arrangement," he added.
Kobi alleged that Ronen Bar and Herzi Halevi advanced the arrangement with Hamas without the knowledge of the political echelon and without informing the political leadership.
“My colleagues in the Shin Bet know that the people who dealt with these matters were Ronen Bar and his team. That was his approach, and he instilled it among senior officials in the system. In my assessment, the Chief of Staff also tended to accept that approach. That is why everyone thought Hamas was deterred and that it was an exercise. That is how Yahya Sinwar managed to deceive the head of the Israeli Shin Bet in his characteristic manner, with his despicable lies. That is why they must be held fully accountable."
Regarding the intelligence in the Shin Bet’s possession shortly before the Hamas attack and the organization’s preparations in the Gaza Strip, Kobi said he was convinced that the information had been available to the organization’s senior officials.
“There were intelligence reports. They called it ‘Green Sheet.’ I won’t go into all of those reports, but they already knew during the night that an attack was coming. Ronen Bar did not go to his office at four in the morning for no reason, and he did not deploy the Tequila team for no reason. He knew something was happening and did not pass that information on to the Prime Minister."
Kobi added: “If the Prime Minister had ordered aircraft to fly over Gaza and create sonic booms, this entire war would have been prevented. If he had passed the information on to the Nova festival, the young people would have fled and lives would have been saved. That didn’t happen because of stupidity and idiocy."
Kobi’s remarks contradict Ronen Bar’s recent claim that he warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, according to Bar, chose to do nothing. Bar also threatened to file a defamation lawsuit against Netanyahu, whom he accused of launching a smear campaign against him.
Kobi rejected those claims: “Ronen Bar will never sue Netanyahu for defamation because, in my assessment, the things he says simply never happened. If he issued a warning, why didn’t he act and prevent the war? There are many questions here. There was no warning. I know that from very reliable sources. These are election stories from a junta that wants to bring down the right-wing government, and that is how I view these claims."