Israel’s Shin Bet chief admits failure to prevent Oct. 7 Hamas attack

JERUSALEM

The chief of Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency, Ronen Bar, admitted failure on Monday to prevent the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

"We all feel that the same security cover we were always proud of - we failed to provide it to the people of Israel on October 7th,” Bar said at a memorial ceremony held at the Shin Bet headquarters in Tel Aviv.

“We all feel the loss, the feeling that we could have prevented it, and as the head of the agency and responsible for the agency’s activities, I feel it perhaps more than anyone,” he added.

Bar said the Shin Bet is undertaking an “in-depth investigation of its role in the Oct. 7 failures.”

“A painful and significant investigation. We will learn from this and correct what is required,” he said. “Without the public’s trust in the state institutions and us, we have no right to exist.”

Israel has waged a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, which killed 1,200 people.

More than 35,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, and over 78,700 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Over seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul