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Former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar sues Netanyahu for nearly $1M over Oct. 7 claims

Bar is suing for 3 million shekels ($970,000) over a Sept. 28 post on X in which Netanyahu blamed the former Shin Bet chief for Oct. 7 intelligence failures and accused him of withholding warnings.

Israel's Chief of the Mossad David Barnea (R) and Security Agency director Ronen Bar, attend a ceremony marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on October 27, 2024. (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Israel's Chief of the Mossad David Barnea (R) and Security Agency director Ronen Bar, attend a ceremony marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on October 27, 2024. — GIL COHEN-MAGEN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Former Shin Bet director Ronen Bar filed a defamation lawsuit against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Tel Aviv District Court on Wednesday, accusing him of falsely blaming Bar alone for the failures that enabled the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

Bar is seeking 3 million shekels ($970,000) in damages.

The lawsuit concerns Netanyahu’s Sept. 28 post on X denying a Wall Street Journal report that Egypt’s then-intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, had called him days before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack to warn of an impending assault. More than 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas-led onslaught, while 250 were taken captive to Gaza. 

Shifting blame 

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