by Michael Hauser Tov at Haaretz
In May 2023, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel could not avoid Hamas as a ‘challenge at its doorstep’ and should prepare for ‘an opening blow’ against the group. Netanyahu dismissed this argument, insisting that Hamas was deterred
Five months before Hamas’ October 7 invasion of Israeli communities near the Gaza border, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a future military campaign in Gaza – an admonition that Netanyahu rejected, Haaretz has learned.
In their meeting on May 21, 2023, following the conclusion of Operation Shield and Arrow, in which the IDF operated against the Islamic Jihad in Gaza, Bar told the prime minister that the operation was “the first round against the Shi’ite axis. Time will tell as far as the deterrence goes. We should prepare for an opening blow, for a round of targeted assassinations. Hamas is the next challenge at our doorstep,” adding that an operation in Gaza would be “unavoidable.”
Netanyahu disagreed and argued that Hamas was deterred, telling Bar that Israel had “a strong balance of fear with Hamas.”
Bar also referred to the tensions pervading the West Bank at the time – following a wave of terror attacks orchestrated by Hamas in Gaza – arguing that the question of launching a campaign against Hamas “will confront us either as a result of a broad operation in Judea and Samaria [West Bank] or as a result of something else.”…