Report by security agency says ‘policy of quiet’ towards Hamas allowed it to build up resources for 2023 attack

Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, has said Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies were among the underlying causes of the 7 October 2023 attack in which Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 Israelis.

In its report on the 7 October attack, Shin Bet acknowledged its own responsibility, admitting it was aware of warning signs that Hamas was planning an operation, but the agency, also known as the General Security Service (GSS), did not grasp the scale, timing and location of the planned attack.

However, the report also argued that a string of Israeli government policies helped pave the way for the Hamas assault.

Among the main reasons for a Hamas military build-up before the attacks, an eight-page public summary of the report listed an Israeli “policy of quiet” towards the group, apparently referring to a policy of restraint in the use of force to keep Hamas’s military capability in check. It also listed Netanyahu’s acquiescence in the flow of funds from Qatar to Gaza, a policy designed to divide Palestinians by boosting Hamas at the expense of the Palestinian state.

The Shin Bet report also pointed to the daily Jewish prayers that have been taking place in recent years in the compound around Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, known to Jews as the Temple Mount. The prayers violate a 58-year-old understanding with Jordan that only Muslims should be allowed to pray at the al-Aqsa and the esplanade around it, but they were championed by the governing coalition’s former national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir.

“The cumulative weight of violations on the Temple Mount, the treatment of [Palestinian] prisoners and the perception that Israeli society had been weakened because of the damage to social cohesion” were all contributory factors to Israel’s vulnerability to attack, the report said.

Shin Bet argued that it had not underestimated Hamas and its desire to mount a major attack from Gaza by overwhelming Israeli fortifications around the coastal strip. The security agency said it even gave the plan the code name of Walls of Jericho, but it did not lead to heightened security.

“The plans were not viewed as a relatable threat, and the series of weak indicative signs that began in the summer of 2023 were not attributed to that threat,” the report said, adding that a Hamas insurgency in the West Bank was seen as more likely at the time.

“That led to the mortal flaw in the decision-making on the night between 6 and 7 October,” the report said.

Read More: Israel’s Shin Bet says Netanyahu policies helped pave way for 7 October

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