Ronen Bar Sues Netanyahu for Defamation Over October 7 Accusations as Israeli Election Looms

Israel's political landscape has been thrown into further turmoil after Ronen Bar, the former head of the Shin Bet domestic security agency, filed a defamation lawsuit against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of spreading false claims about responsibility for the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack. The legal action, submitted just weeks before a closely contested national election scheduled for October 27, adds a dramatic new chapter to an already charged political atmosphere in which Netanyahu is fighting to remain in power.

According to court documents, Bar is seeking three million shekels—approximately $968,500—in damages from the prime minister. The lawsuit alleges that Netanyahu knowingly made false accusations against Bar in an effort to deflect scrutiny from his own role in failing to prevent the deadliest attack in Israel's history. Bar's legal team argues that the prime minister's statements were deliberately misleading and designed to shift public attention away from his own culpability.

The filing, described as spanning well over a hundred pages, contends that Bar attempted to alert the prime minister's office as soon as indications of a potential attack emerged. However, Bar maintains that he did not possess Netanyahu's direct telephone number and instead reached out to the prime minister's military secretary. This detail directly contradicts Netanyahu's public assertions that he was never warned by Bar on the morning of the assault.

Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that had he been properly alerted by either Bar or military leaders, he could have taken action to prevent or mitigate the attack. The prime minister's narrative places significant responsibility on security officials, arguing that their failure to wake him or directly inform him deprived him of the opportunity to respond. Bar's lawsuit characterizes these claims as slanderous and asserts that Netanyahu accused him of "criminal failures" despite knowing those accusations to be untrue.

The lawsuit further argues that it was Netanyahu's own policies pursued over multiple years that had the effect of "increasing the dangers posed by terrorist organisations in Gaza." This assertion forms part of a broader argument that the prime minister bears significant responsibility for creating the conditions that enabled the October 7 attack, rather than the security establishment alone.

In response to the lawsuit, Netanyahu issued a statement through his Likud party on Wednesday, striking a dismissive and confrontational tone. "Ronen, are you serious?" the statement read, before challenging Bar's account directly. The prime minister claimed that Bar possessed his number on a "red line" and could have called him immediately, as other security chiefs routinely do. He further asked how many lives might have been saved had Bar called in time, framing the former Shin Bet chief as the one who failed in his duty.

Bar stepped down from his position as head of Shin Bet in June 2025, following intense criticism and recriminations over the October 7 attack. Throughout his tenure and after his resignation, Bar has consistently maintained that he did inform Netanyahu of the threat in advance, directly contradicting the prime minister's version of events. The lawsuit represents an escalation of this long-running dispute, now moving from the realm of public statements into formal legal proceedings.

The timing of the lawsuit is particularly significant given its proximity to the October 27 election. Recent polling suggests that Netanyahu's Likud party and the ruling coalition are locked in a tight race against opposition blocs, with no clear frontrunner emerging in what has become an increasingly fragmented political landscape. The election is the first to be held since Israel engaged in military conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran following the October 7 attacks, making national security and accountability central campaign issues.

The defamation case comes just days after explosive allegations from Avi Gil, Netanyahu's former military secretary, who told Israel's Channel 12 that the prime minister's office had "falsified records related to October 7, 2023." Gil, who served in the role from July 2021 to May 2024, claimed that a stenographer in Netanyahu's office approached him in January 2024 with instructions from the prime minister's chief of staff to alter the recorded time of a four-minute phone call from 6:40am to 6:29am local time.

Gil stated that the stenographer told him she was not permitted to make the change, and he accused the head of Netanyahu's office of manipulating telephone records. He emphasized that these were established facts, adding that there was "no dispute about them." These allegations, if verified, would suggest deliberate tampering with evidence related to the events preceding the attack, further complicating Netanyahu's defense.

Additional reporting has shed light on warnings that Netanyahu allegedly received before the attack. Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Egypt's intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, had personally warned the prime minister of an impending attack. In an unusual direct communication, Kamel reportedly called Netanyahu just days before October 7. This followed earlier warnings in September 2023, when Kamel is said to have traveled to Israel to alert security officials in person that Hamas was planning an assault.

The human toll of the October 7 attack remains staggering. According to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, at least 1,221 Israelis were killed when Hamas militants breached the fence separating Israel from Gaza. Additionally, 251 Israelis were taken hostage, including the bodies of 44 individuals killed during the attack. These figures underscore the magnitude of the security failure and the intense public demand for accountability that continues to shape Israeli politics.

The broader conflict that followed has resulted in devastating casualties in Gaza. According to the Health Ministry in the enclave, Israeli military operations have killed more than 74,300 people in Gaza over the three years since the attack. More than 1,400 Gazans have reportedly been killed in Israeli attacks even after a tentative ceasefire backed by the United States was reached last year, raising questions about the durability of that arrangement.

As the election approaches, the defamation lawsuit and the accompanying allegations of record falsification are likely to dominate political discourse in Israel. Netanyahu finds himself under pressure not only from opposition parties but also from former staff and government officials who have publicly criticized his handling of the October 7 crisis. The outcome of both the legal proceedings and the election will have profound implications for Israel's political future and for how the nation reckons with the failures that led to its deadliest day.