Israeli Journalist Accuses Security Agencies of Pre-Oct 7 Failures

Israeli journalist and Channel 14 host Erel Segal has made explosive accusations regarding the events leading up to the October 7th Hamas attacks, drawing parallels to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Segal claimed on his X (formerly Twitter) account that the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) knew about Yigal Amir, the assassin of Rabin, citing a personal connection through his father, who was the lawyer for Shlomi Halawi. Segal stated, "How did it end? Sarac sarac (meaning 'nothing came of it' or 'a failure'), Margalit Har Shefi sat in jail and Carmi Gilon with a piggish budget pension."

Segal further alleged that on the eve of October 7th, the Shin Bet was engaged in "normalization talks" with Hamas, mediated by Egypt, and reached an agreement. He asserted that despite clear warning signs that night, the heads of the security apparatus, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, deliberately excluded the political echelon and managed the situation independently. "Why did they abandon the Gaza envelope? Who calmed them down? Why again 'sarac sarac'?" Segal questioned, implying a repeated pattern of intelligence failures and cover-ups.

These statements by Segal come amidst reports from "Kan 11" journalist Gili Cohen, which contradicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement that he had spoken with Bar and Halevi on the night of October 6th-7th. A senior security official from the time of the October 7th massacre reportedly criticized Netanyahu's office, calling the Prime Minister's statement an "incitement against the heads of the security organizations."