Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fired the head of the nation’s security service over its failure to anticipate the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas.
The Israeli cabinet met on Thursday evening to formally approve the early dismissal of Ronen Bar, who was appointed in October 2021 for a five-year term as the Shin Bet’s chief.
Netanyahu announced his intention to sack Mr Bar in a video statement on Sunday, citing an “ongoing distrust” between the two men which he said had “grown over time”.
The move sparked outrage and further inflamed anti-government demonstrations in Jerusalem, which saw thousands of Israelis join forces with protestors opposing Israel’s renewed assault on Gaza.
It is the first time in Israel’s history that a government has fired the Shin Bet’s leader.
A letter sent to sent by Netanyahu to members of his government ahead of the meeting referenced a “persistent loss of professional and personal trust” between the prime minister and Mr Bar, and proposed his term end on 20 April.
“The loss of professional trust has been consolidated during the war, beyond the operational failure of 7 October [2023], and in particular in recent months,” it said, referring to the Hamas attacks on Israel which sparked the Israel-Gaza war.
The Shin Bet is Israel’s domestic intelligence agency and plays a key role in the war. Its activities and membership are closely-held state secrets.
However, Mr Bar has characterised the decision to remove him as politically motivated.
The Times of Israel said that Mr Bar did not attend the cabinet vote, but sent a letter saying that firing him was “entirely tainted by conflicts of interest” as the Shin Bet investigates the Prime Minister’s Office over allegations of “Qatar’s involvement in the heart of Israeli decision-making”.
The Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara late last month ordered the police and the Shin Bet to investigate officials within Netanyahu’s office over alleged financial ties to Qatar. A gag order has since been issued on all information relating to the investigation. Netanyahu’s Likud Party denies all allegations.
Ms Baharav-Miara – a vocal critic of Netanyahu who is herself facing dismissal proceedings – argued that Mr Bar could not be fired until the legality of the move had been assessed.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, an NGO, said it had launched an appeal against the “illegal decision […] posing a real risk to national security”.
Yesh Atid, the centre-right party led by Yair Lapid, said it had filed an appeal on behalf of several opposition parties and denounced the sacking as a “decision taken due to a blatant conflict of interest by the prime minister”.
Israel launched its war in Gaza after Hamas invaded southern Israel on 7 October, 2023, killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostage.
More than 48,500 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, the Hamas-run health ministry says.
Israel ended a months-long ceasefire earlier this week and resumed its attacks on Gaza. More than 400 people were killed in the first night of bombing, according to the health ministry.
Large crowds of Israelis have protested over the resumption of the war, as well as over Netanyahu’s moves to sack Mr Bar.
Israel and Hamas failed to agree how to take the ceasefire beyond the first phase, with negotiations expected to have started six weeks ago.
Hamas did not agree to a renegotiation of the ceasefire on Israel’s terms, although it did offer to release a living American hostage (and four bodies), to extend the current arrangement.
Israel blocked all food, fuel and medical supplies entering Gaza at the beginning of March in order to put pressure on Hamas.
