Israeli officials have disputed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claims about communications between the Shin Bet chief and the chief of staff during the night preceding the October 7 attack, according to reporting by Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster.
Contrary to Netanyahu’s public statements, the two security officials never directly communicated with each other during that critical night, according to informed officials cited in the report [1]. Instead, communications occurred between their respective office directors. The Shin Bet chief’s office director was responsible for waking the chief of staff during the hours before the attack, the officials said.
The dispute centers on the characterization of intelligence coordination failures. Netanyahu’s office has suggested that the Shin Bet chief and military commander deliberately withheld information from the government. However, officials familiar with the matter contend that Netanyahu’s statement creates a misleading impression – not only suggesting that information was intentionally concealed, but also implying direct communication between the two security chiefs that never occurred.
A senior security official who held a high-ranking position at the time of the attack characterized Netanyahu’s account as incitement against security agency leaders, stating that the prime minister knows the statement is false [1].
The disputed account appears in an Israeli military investigation into the warning indicators and events of that night, which has been presented to the political level. The investigation’s findings contradict the prime minister’s public narrative regarding how intelligence was handled in the hours before Hamas’s attack.
This dispute emerges amid broader accountability questions surrounding October 7. Netanyahu’s office has previously denied receiving Egyptian warnings before the attack and has filed defamation suits related to claims about foreign intelligence coordination [2]. The office has placed responsibility for intelligence failures on Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, while attributing political motivations to critics of the government’s security response.
The conflicting accounts raise questions about the accuracy of Netanyahu’s characterization of events and the chain of command during the critical hours before the attack. The Kan report suggests that the prime minister’s version of events does not align with the documented record of how communications actually occurred between Israel’s top security officials that night.
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