Shin Bet investigation finds government-wide policy failures leading to 7 October 2023 attack

A long-awaited investigation by Israel's internal law enforcement agency, the Shin Bet, found on Tuesday that both political and intelligence failures led to the Hamas attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, including a lack of coordination between the Israeli military and the Shin Bet itself, Haaretz reported. 

The Shin Bet largely blames the attacks on the government's policy of maintaining "quiet" in Gaza - given the lack of any rocket launches or other activity by fighting factions in Gaza for more than a year - as well as what it describes as the transfer of Qatari funds to Hamas's military wing, the Qassam Brigades, in order to build up its ranks. 

The Shin Bet further pointed to "disturbances on the Temple Mount, the treatment of Palestinian prisoners, and the perception that Israeli society had weakened due to the erosion of social cohesion [in the wake of the judicial overhaul]" as factors that led to the attacks. 

While the Shin Bet itself said it had long criticised the "arrangement-based reality" that Hamas was deterred and therefore quiet in Gaza, it failed to identify Hamas's plan to attack Israel despite possessing relevant information about its growing strength. 

The investigation also revealed that the division of responsibility between the Shin Bet and the Israeli military "was not suited to the situation on the ground", Haaretz reported.