Channel 14 broadcast quotes from the official protocol of a security discussion held on October 1, 2023, showing that Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar did not recommend targeting Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, contrary to a recent Haaretz investigation. The protocol quotes Bar saying Israel 'cannot go to a planned round of fighting' under any known constellation. The report also cites a Shin Bet intelligence assessment from September 21, 2023, concluding that Hamas had no interest in escalation, undercutting the claim that an Emirati warning was ignored.
Channel 14's flagship evening broadcast aired an investigative segment on Wednesday night, publishing verbatim quotes from the official protocol of a high-level security discussion held on October 1, 2023, less than a week before the Hamas invasion. The segment, reported by commentator Noam Amir, directly challenges a widely-cited Haaretz investigation by Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, which claimed that Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar recommended assassinating Yahya Sinwar during that meeting, citing 'signs of arrogance' in the Hamas leader.
The protocol quotes Bar as saying: 'We can be very generous and even tempting on humanitarian issues… unfortunately, it does not seem to me that we can, in any known constellation, go to a planned round (of fighting).' The Channel 14 report notes that Eldar and Yuval provided no sourcing for their characterization of Bar's position.
The segment also highlights a Shin Bet intelligence assessment from September 21, 2023 — six days after the alleged phone call between Prime Minister Netanyahu and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed — which stated: 'To our understanding, this move (resuming protests on the border) does not reflect a change in Hamas's strategy, and it is clear that even now it has no interest in deteriorating into a broad military confrontation.' This directly contradicts the Haaretz narrative that an explicit warning from the UAE was received and suppressed.
The disclosure adds fresh fuel to the long-running public debate over what the security establishment knew before October 7 and whether successive warnings were ignored. The Prime Minister's Office has called the Haaretz report an 'absolute lie,' and UAE sources have declined to confirm or deny the phone call. The Zioneer has previously reported extensively on the Haaretz allegations and the intelligence gaps ahead of the attack.
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