Israel's Shin Bet secret service apparently learned about Hamas' attack plans in the summer. However, there was no reaction to the tip at the time.
Tel Aviv – Apparently, the Israeli secret service Shin Bet may have known about the terrorist militia's plans before Hamas' attack on Israel. And this was a few months before October 7th, when Hamas began its bloody attack on Israel.
The Shin Bet security service apparently received a tip in the summer that Hamas was planning a “major operation” shortly after the Jewish holiday on the occasion of the Yom Kippur War. like the newspaper The Times of Israel reports. However, the information that was brought to the secret service was not taken seriously and was dismissed as insignificant.
Information about Hamas' plans was said to have reached the Israeli secret service in the summer
The tip-off of a potentially planned Hamas attack on Israel came from a human source in the Gaza Strip, such as the Israeli television station Keshet 12 reported on Wednesday evening (December 27). The broadcaster relies on statements from the security authorities.
After the Shin Bet informant had already learned about a supposedly impending Hamas attack on Israel in the summer, the person transmitted the raw information, including some details, to Israel's secret service. However, the Israeli secret service did not take this warning seriously. “If Hamas is truly about to carry out such an act, we will provide additional information on this,” Shin Bet officials said, according to the report.
The information was reportedly not passed on to senior Shin Bet officials, and the agency's head, Ronen Bar, never learned of it.
Shin Bet wants to take care of the processing after the end of the war
The reference to Hamas' attack plans was only discovered in the aftermath of the major offensive on October 7th of this year. This was done as part of the investigation to understand how the secret service was able to overlook the attack, which appeared to have been planned long in advance.
The fact that Shin Bet did not take the tip-off of suspected attack plans seriously could also be due to the fact that the source had not been in frequent contact with the secret service before making contact. At least that's what unnamed Shin Bet sources say, the network said. However, the secret service has since admitted that the source in question is a very reliable one.
In its official response to the report, the Shin Bet said it is currently focused on the ongoing war against Hamas. However, they are also currently preparing to thoroughly investigate after the war how the failure of the intelligence service came about and also want to check what information was actually available in this context.
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