"Lack of trust"

Netanyahu dismisses head of domestic intelligence service

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu(Bild: AP/Gil Cohen-Magen)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service. There is a "lack of trust", he explained in a video address on Sunday. Ronen Bar had recently admitted his failure to prevent the Hamas attack on Israel.

"If the Shin Bet had acted differently, (...) the massacre could have been prevented," said Ronen Bar. Israel's army had previously admitted that it had "completely failed" in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. The Shin Bet investigation report also indirectly criticized Netanyahu for the fact that an Israeli "policy of calm" had enabled Hamas to "build up an impressive arsenal of weapons".

The relationship between the head of government and Bar was already strained before October 7, 2023, mainly due to the controversial judicial reform, against which there had been months of mass protests. Netanyahu has now announced that he will dismiss Bar. The organization must be restored. There is a need to "(...) achieve all our war aims and prevent the next catastrophe".

Team prepares for talks with Hamas
The war in the Gaza Strip was triggered by a major attack by Hamas and its allied fighters. Now the indirect talks with the terrorist organization about a ceasefire are to be continued. The basis is "the mediators' response to the proposal by US envoy Steve Witkoff for the immediate release of eleven live hostages and half of the dead hostages", Netanyahu's office announced.

The Israeli head of government thus rejected the Hamas offer to release one live hostage and hand over the bodies of four other hostages. The army assumes that 58 people are still being held in the Gaza Strip, although 34 of them are dead. The first phase of the ceasefire ended on March 1. There is still disagreement about how to proceed.