Prime Minister Netanyahu is in political crisis due to the announcement of a defamation lawsuit against a former intelligence chief over suspicions that he was aware of the Hamas surprise attack in advance.

(Cairo = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kim Sang-hoon = A month before the Israeli general election (October 27), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a political crisis amid a series of revelations that he ignored the surprise attack by the Palestinian armed political faction Hamas on October 7, 2023, even though he knew about it in advance.

Following suspicions that he ignored the advance warnings of his Arab allies, even his country's former intelligence chief is criticizing Prime Minister Netanyahu, threatening to file a defamation lawsuit.

According to the Israeli daily Times of Israel on the 28th (local time), Ronen Bar, former director of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency, issued a statement today and announced that he would file a defamation lawsuit against Prime Minister Netanyahu.

It is a warning of legal action targeting Prime Minister Netanyahu's claim that security authorities, who knew about the threat in advance the night before the Hamas surprise attack, did not report it to him.

“We warned the prime minister of an impending catastrophe in an unprecedented way, but he ignored both these warnings and our recommendations to strengthen border defenses,” Bahr said.

He pointed out that Prime Minister Netanyahu was selectively leaking only documents favorable to him while delaying the formation of a national investigative committee, and requested the disclosure of related documents, including the prime minister's interview schedule just before the Hamas raid, to uncover the truth.

In particular, former Director Bar strongly criticized Prime Minister Netanyahu's attitude of passing responsibility to the security authorities, saying, "Victory is achieved by preemptively striking external enemies, not by attacking internal security agencies."

Former Director Barr's revelations are having a growing impact in conjunction with the recent reports of friendly countries' 'ignorance of prior warnings'.

Previously, the U.S. Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Abbas Kamel, director of Egypt's National Intelligence Service (GIS), called Prime Minister Netanyahu directly a few days before the Hamas raid and warned him of a possible attack by Hamas.

When the Israeli security authorities ignored repeated warnings from Egyptian officials, the head of the Intelligence Bureau became desperate and contacted the Prime Minister's Office directly.

Prior to this, it was revealed that President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Muhammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan also spoke directly to Prime Minister Netanyahu for 45 minutes before the surprise attack and informed him of the threat.

The Associated Press reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu, who was cornered, secretly visited the UAE last weekend and asked President Muhammad to deny the reports.

Some criticize that he deliberately ignored the red alert from a friendly country because he was so preoccupied with negotiations to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia.

Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has completely denied these allegations, blamed the omission of reports from the military and intelligence agencies, saying that security chiefs did not wake him in the early morning of the day of the Hamas raid while discussing abnormal signs.

However, the Prime Minister's explanation appears to be losing persuasiveness as circumstances surrounding prior knowledge are raised one after another from the former Chief Information Officer to the leaders of neighboring countries.

This situation is expected to be a fatal blow to Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is seeking to extend his power for survival in next month's general election. Not only is his political position, which has claimed to be a 'guardian of security', shaken, but he is also being pushed into a corner amid criticism that he is shifting responsibility for the national disaster to security agencies and allies.