A veteran Shin Bet agent who served Israel’s domestic intelligence agency for 37 years has revealed that he issued a serious warning about suspicious Hamas activity just two days before the October 7 massacre, accusing former Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar of failing to act on intelligence that reached the highest levels of the organization. The former agent says the warning was never passed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that he subsequently faced threats and retaliation after speaking out about the failure, Channel 14 reports.

The former agent, identified only as “A,” served in sensitive intelligence positions involving counterterrorism, cyber operations and intelligence gathering through human sources. He began working with the Shin Bet at age 17 and was involved in operations targeting terrorist networks responsible for attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers.

According to his account, the first indication of unusual activity emerged on October 2, 2023, five days before the Hamas massacre. Intelligence personnel discovered that a Gaza-based terrorist coordinator had suddenly disappeared from electronic communications, stopped using WhatsApp and severed contact with individuals he had previously directed.

Three days later, on October 5, the agent received another troubling report: a second terrorist coordinator in Gaza had similarly disappeared. When he attempted to contact the individual through his known WhatsApp number, an unfamiliar man with a Gazan accent answered and informed him that the person was unavailable indefinitely. Asked about additional contacts, the man responded that the others were also unavailable.

The unusual pattern immediately raised concerns. The agent asked his superiors whether Israel was preparing to eliminate a senior Hamas figure, reasoning that such an operation might explain the sudden disappearance of several terrorist coordinators. When he was informed that no such operation was planned, he became convinced that something significant was approaching.

At approximately 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 5, less than 48 hours before Hamas launched its devastating assault, the agent says he transmitted his warning through the Shin Bet’s intelligence channels. He maintains that the information was immediately passed from his unit to a department head, then to the deputy director and ultimately to Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar.

The most serious allegation concerns what happened after that warning reached senior leadership. The former agent says Bar received the intelligence but failed to ensure that it was acted upon and that the information was never communicated to Netanyahu. He directly holds Bar responsible for the intelligence failure, arguing that the Shin Bet director bore ultimate responsibility for the handling of warnings within the organization.

The former agent also described disturbing developments inside the Shin Bet after the massacre. When he reminded his superiors that he had warned them before October 7, he says their attitude toward him changed dramatically. He was subsequently instructed to undergo a polygraph examination, during which investigators questioned him about possible contacts with foreign intelligence organizations and Israeli intelligence bodies.

In another incident, he says officials asked whether he was considering harming himself, a question he interpreted as a veiled threat against his life. The agent alleges that he subsequently received additional threats, including death threats, and was eventually removed from the Shin Bet. He did not publicly identify the individuals responsible for the alleged death threats.

The Shin Bet categorically rejected his account, saying that internal investigations and documents recovered from Gaza established that even senior Hamas officials were kept unaware of the precise timing of the October 7 attack until shortly before it began.

Bar issued a separate denial, describing the allegations as entirely fabricated. He maintained that the Shin Bet’s investigations, interrogations and captured Hamas documents contradicted the suggestion that senior Hamas figures had entered emergency preparations during the week preceding the massacre.

Following those denials, Channel 14 again contacted the former agent and presented him with the responses from the Shin Bet and Bar. He stood by his testimony and offered to undergo a polygraph examination at any location selected by investigators, provided the examination was conducted independently of the Shin Bet.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)