Israel ex-security chief sues Netanyahu for Oct 7 defamation

JERUSALEM: The former head of Israel's Shin Bet domestic security agency sued Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for defamation on Wednesday, weeks before elections, in a row over responsibility for Hamas's Oct 7, 2023, attack.

Netanyahu, who polls show is in a tight race to stay in power in the Oct 27 election, has faced heavy criticism from the opposition for failing to prevent the attack, the deadliest day in Israeli history.

Netanyahu, who has cast himself as a guarantor of Israel's security over his decades-long career, has insisted that he could have stopped the attack had the Shin Bet's then director, Ronen Bar, or military leaders called to wake him up on the day of the early-morning assault.

In the 134-page court document, Bar accused Netanyahu of "lying to cover himself" and said it was slanderous to accuse him of "criminal failures" over the attack.

Netanyahu made accusations against Bar "that he knew to be false, with the aim of diverting the debate from his own responsibility for the events of Oct 7", the lawsuit said.

Instead, it was Netanyahu's policies over several years that had "increased the dangers posed by terrorist organisations in Gaza", it said.

Bar resigned in June 2025, saying at the time that "all the systems collapsed" in the security agency and that Shin Bet "failed to sound the alarm".

But Bar said he was resigning to take responsibility as head of the organisation and insists he did warn Netanyahu before Oct 7 of potential threats linked to Hamas.

Bar is seeking three million shekels (around US$968,500) in damages from Netanyahu.

Bar said he telephoned the prime minister's military secretary as soon as signs of a possible attack emerged, but that he did not have Netanyahu's direct number.

"Ronen, are you serious?" Netanyahu responded in a statement issued by his Likud party on Wednesday.

"You had my number on the red line and could have called me immediately, as all security chiefs do."

"How many lives could we have saved if only you had called in time?" he asked.

Hamas stormed into Israel with pickup trucks and paragliders and opened fire at sites including a music festival. The attack killed 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, while fighters also dragged 251 hostages into Gaza, 44 of whom were already dead.

Israel responded with a massive offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 74,300 people, according to the territory's health ministry, which operates under Hamas and whose figures are generally considered reliable by the United Nations.