Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar on Monday said there was no time limit or limit of power on Israel regarding the punishment it will bring to bear on Hamas for its invasion of the south on October 7 and ensuring the end of the terror group.
"We are at war, not in another round [of lower-scale conflict.] In a round, you win with the perception of victory and achieving quiet, in a war you conclude with a decisive win by altering the situation. There are no limiting lines and no time limit. Until the end," said Bar.
Also, in the Shin Bet chief's comments, which were his first to the public since Hamas fooled all of the Israeli intelligence establishment into thinking it was afraid of any wider conflict with Israel, Bar said, "Despite the series of actions which we undertook, unfortunately, on Shabbat, we failed to provide sufficient warning which would have thwarted the attack."
"As the one who stands at the head of this organization, the responsibility is on me. There will be a time for probing, but now we are fighting," said Bar.
Taking responsibility for the security failure
Bar followed IDF Chief-of-Staff (Lt.Gen.) Herzi Halevi's taking of responsibility last week.
To date, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not done the same, though he was not only premier on Saturday but also for all but 18 months since 2009, during which the security concept regarding Hamas was formulated. In addition, Bar discussed the Shin Bet having lost around a dozen of its fighters in the field, something extremely rare for the elite intelligence unit.
Besides those dozen or so, it is estimated that dozens more likely participated in pushing Hamas out of the south side-by-side with regular IDF forces.
Also, the Shin Bet has been at the forefront of providing new intelligence for the war from interrogations of captured terrorists.