On October 14, 2026, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Ronen Bar, the former director of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), filed a lawsuit against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seeking 3 million shekels in damages—equivalent to over $975,000 USD at the exchange rate at the time of publication. The defamation lawsuit effectively turns the public controversy surrounding the causes of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack into a legal dispute over exactly who bears responsibility for the security failure.
The Core of the Lawsuit: Shifting Blame for Security Failures
According to the lawsuit, Bar claims that Netanyahu purposefully spread defamatory information about him in order to shift the blame for security flaws that, in the plaintiff's view, may have led to the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Thus, the legal proceedings become a platform where both sides will contest not only the facts, but the very narrative of who was making decisions during the critical period.
“Over 20 Warnings”: Bar's Version
In the lawsuit, Bar states that he warned the prime minister more than 20 times about developments in the Gaza Strip and proposed proactive measures to counter Hamas. According to him, on October 7, 2023, prior to the terrorist attacks, he instructed his staff to directly brief the prime minister's military secretary on the situation. The lawsuit claims that Netanyahu subsequently failed to call Bar back or intervene in the decision-making process even after the attacks had already begun.
The Prime Minister's Position
In September, Netanyahu stated in a social media post that Bar had discussed all warning signs with military leaders, but decided on his own not to call the prime minister or brief him on the situation. Previously, Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed his innocence, placing the blame for the failure on intelligence agencies and the military. Thus, the prime minister's public statements and Bar's claims in the lawsuit present two conflicting pictures of to whom and at what moment information was conveyed.
Resignations and the Redistribution of Responsibility
It is worth recalling that following the events of October 7, 2023, both Ronen Bar and Herzi Halevi, who was then serving as Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, resigned, taking responsibility for the failure to prevent the attack. Bar's lawsuit, filed nearly three years after the attacks, essentially challenges the very logic of this "collective" resignation and shifts the focus onto the actions of the prime minister, making the case one of the most high-profile domestic political processes in Israel.
