Israel’s internal security agency declined to respond after a dramatic allegation raised in the Knesset cast fresh doubt on official explanations surrounding the intelligence failures before the October 7 massacre. While the claims have not been independently verified, their presentation from the Knesset floor is expected to intensify public and political demands for a State Commission of Inquiry.
Speaking during a debate in the Knesset, Deputy Minister Almog Cohen of the Otzma Yehudit asserted that Israeli security services were not entirely without human intelligence inside Gaza in the hours before the Hamas assault. Cohen said the Shin Bet maintained a high-level source operating within the Gaza Strip who issued a concrete warning shortly before the attack began.
According to Cohen, the source, identified by the codename “Green Sardine,” reported at around 3:30 a.m. that large numbers of Nukhba terrorists were assembling inside mosques across Gaza. He said this information was delivered live to the agent’s handler and should have been treated as a clear operational signal, noting that the gathering took place nearly two hours before the earliest Fajr prayer, a timing he described as a precise and unusual indicator of imminent action.
Cohen further alleged that although Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar convened senior division heads at roughly the same time, the intelligence about the mosque gatherings was not transmitted to the relevant command centers where preventative measures could have been initiated. He argued that this failure severed the chain between intelligence collection and operational response.
If Cohen’s account proves accurate, it would undermine the long-standing official position that Israel lacked actionable human intelligence from within Gaza during the critical pre-attack window. For more than a year, public briefings have maintained that Israeli agencies were largely unaware of specific Hamas movements until terrorists breached the border fence. Cohen’s statements sharpen the unresolved questions surrounding who possessed early warnings, how they were handled, and why they did not trigger an immediate military alert.
While the Shin Bet has refrained from commenting and the existence and reporting of the “Green Sardine” source remain unconfirmed, the disclosure has already reignited debate over accountability at the highest levels.
{Matzav.com}
