Former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar sues Netanyahu for defamation over October 7

On the morning of 15 October 2026 former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar filed a 3-million-shekel (about $970,000) defamation lawsuit against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Central District Court in Lod. The suit targets a 28 September post on X in which Netanyahu blamed Bar for the intelligence failures of 7 October 2023 and accused him of hiding warnings. According to the lawsuit, Bar issued unprecedented, almost weekly warnings to the prime minister in the months before the Hamas attack, highlighting the risk of a multi-front war with a specific focus on Gaza during the High Holy Days, and even proposed targeted operations against senior Hamas officials, which Netanyahu rejected. 'As the head of the service I bear responsibility for the Shin Bet's failure,' Bar wrote in the filing, 'but the prime minister is now running a malicious smear campaign to shift political blame.' The case lands as Israel approaches the third anniversary of the attack, amid continuing Israeli strikes in Gaza under a shaky ceasefire and a long-running political fight over a state commission of inquiry into 7 October.