A former Shin Bet official: Netanyahu has known the Hamas attack scenario since 2017

Tel Aviv - Ofoq News - Ilan Shagiv, a former official in the Israeli General Security Service "Shin Bet", today, Friday, accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of lying about his claims that he had not received warnings before the attack on October 7, 2023, stressing that Netanyahu had been aware of the attack scenario since 2017.

Shagiv said, in an interview with the Israeli Kan radio, that the Shin Bet had prepared plans over the years to assassinate senior leaders of the Hamas movement, but Netanyahu refused to go ahead with their implementation, and contented himself with asking the agency to maintain readiness.

He added that Netanyahu himself presented, during a session of the State Control Committee in the Knesset in April 2017, a scenario for a Hamas attack, which included the use of commando forces and drones, control of towns, and the kidnapping of civilians and soldiers, a scenario that was fulfilled, he said, in an almost identical manner six years later.

Shagiv said: “Netanyahu presented a scenario identical to what happened later, including commando forces, drones, control of towns, and the kidnapping of civilians and soldiers. All of this is in a video on YouTube that everyone can watch. Where did Netanyahu know these details if he had not received them from the Shin Bet, which provided him with the intelligence information?”

He continued: "For him to come today and say that we did not know and did not hear, this is crossing the limits."

Shagiv stressed the need to distinguish between the intelligence picture and the specific intelligence warning, explaining that intelligence information about Hamas’ intentions and capabilities was available, and that it is not correct to claim that Israel did not know that the movement wanted to carry out an attack or that it was not aware of its capabilities.

In a related context, the former official said that over the years, Netanyahu repeatedly rejected the Shin Bet’s recommendations to assassinate senior Hamas leaders, citing a plan to assassinate Ahmed al-Jaabari, whom he described as Hamas’ chief of staff during his period of service in the agency.

He explained that the Shin Bet presented to Netanyahu a plan to assassinate Al-Jaabari, after monitoring his repeated daily movement pattern, noting that the operation was very complex, and required advanced technical preparations, in addition to implementing experimental models in northern Israel to ensure its success.

He added: "We reached a stage where we knew that we were capable of assassinating Al-Jaabari, and of course we raised the matter to the prime minister, but his response was, as in another case: Maintain readiness."

Shagiv pointed out that preparing to carry out an operation of this type does not mean putting the operation plan in a drawer and waiting for an order to implement it, but rather requires keeping entire teams in a state of continuous work, including technology units, explosives, and many other equipment.

He concluded by saying that the Shin Bet informed Netanyahu every time that preparations for the operation had been completed, but the response he constantly received was: “Maintain readiness.”