The “Golden News” that reached the Shin Bet about the Hamas attack on October 7 | Exposing “Ovda”

A few months before Simchat Torah, a concrete warning came from a human source in the Gaza Strip about a “major move” planned by Hamas – a week after Yom Kippur • The information came from a man known as “Mbu’a” – a person who heard from another source about the plan • Despite this warning, the Shin Bet marked the information as “insignificant” – and the attack did occur at the expected time • all the details

Ilana Dayan | Mako | The main edition | 12/27/23

Hamas attack on October 7 | Photo : Reuters

The information that could have prevented a disaster: Months before the Hamas surprise attack, the Shin Bet received concrete information about Hamas’s intention to carry it out, including the planned date – this is what Ilana Dayan and Sharit Magen revealed this evening (Wednesday) in the “Main Edition”. The information came from a human source that the Shin Bet operated in the Gaza Strip – according to which “Hamas is planning a major move in the week after Yom Kippur.” 

The signs before the attack – coverage N12

• The presentation that predicted the attack, and the night before
• The warning reached the head of Amn – and was not addressed
• The warning of 8200 – and the commander who underestimated: “fantasies”

Compared to the same “signs” that were lit the night before October 7, this time it is not about signals or transmissions that were received, but about information originating from “Youmint”, that is, human intelligence. This concrete information came from the mouth of a source known as “Mbo’a” – a professional term for someone who brings information from another means. That is, he did not hear the information directly, but from someone who knew how to tell him that he had heard about the program.

The information received was not forwarded to the head of the Shin Bet in real time. Ronan Bar, archive | Photo: Flash/90

However, the question arises, what happened to this golden information from the moment it reached the Shin Bet? The operator of that human source, passed the raw information to those who are supposed to handle this information. However, the warning was not marked as significant information. The assumption was that if it really came close to being implemented, additional intelligence would arrive As a result, the information does not pass to the higher levels, and did not reach the head of the Shin Bet Ronan Bar in real time.

The golden information that reached the Shin Bet months before the attack – which was not marked as significant information. Pictured: Hamas attack on October 7 | Photo: Haim Goldberg, AP

Since October 7, the Shin Bet has been trying to understand how they failed in the incident of receiving the information. As part of this attempt to understand the failure, they come up with the same information, which arrived as mentioned months before Simchat Torah, and was buried under piles of other information.

Shin Bet sources explain that the reported source “was relatively new, not an old source, and its reliability was also unclear.” In retrospect, they know to say that this is a source whose level of reliability is “very high.” The same Shin Bet sources emphasize: “There is no intention to overthrow the The responsibility for low ranks, in the Shin Bet, will not be “Shg. The question of what should have been done with this information – will still be examined. In the bottom line – there is no debate that we failed, and we did not warn of war.”

The Shin Bet responded: “At this time, the Shin Bet is focused on fighting. The Shin Bet is prepared to conduct in-depth and thorough investigations for the benefit of learning and learning lessons, and in this framework all the information that was available will be examined. In any case, the focus on one specific piece of information does not reflect the intelligence picture at the time.”