A political storm erupted in the Knesset after Likud MK Tally Gotliv used the protection of parliamentary immunity to disclose what she described as a critical and previously concealed detail surrounding the breakdown in Israel’s security posture before the October 7 massacre. Speaking in the plenum, she claimed that the official known as Oscar, who once headed the Shin Bet’s Southern District, dispatched an operative to the Erez crossing late on the night of October 6 for a direct conversation with a senior Hamas operative roughly eight hours before the onslaught began.
Gotliv identified the meeting as highly troubling, stating, “R. from the Shin Bet, known as Oscar, I didn’t add the first letter of your last name out of courtesy, sent an officer to the Erez crossing on the night of October 6th at around 10 p.m. to meet with the cruel Izz al-Din al-Haddad.” Her remarks suggested that the rendezvous took place at a moment when multiple indicators of heightened terror activity were already emerging.
She further alleged that the purpose of the contact was to obtain information straight from the Hamas figure about unusual communications patterns, explaining that the official was seeking clarity about “SIM cards and other signs.” Gotliv fiercely criticized the very idea of relying on such a source, charging that “in your utter lunacy, you believed the bizarre story that the damned terrorist told you.”
Her dramatic intervention came as wider questions mount regarding why several senior security officials have not cooperated with the State Comptroller’s investigation into the intelligence collapse that paved the way for the October 7 attack. Reports indicate that two top Shin Bet figures have repeatedly declined to appear, even after State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman triggered an unprecedented legal mechanism to compel testimony.
Linking the refusal directly to the alleged late-night meeting, Gotliv confronted the official through her remarks, demanding, “Now I understand why you refuse to appear before the State Comptroller.” Her comments implied that the hidden encounter may be at the heart of their reluctance to cooperate.
Gotliv also highlighted the contrasting operational decisions taken in those crucial hours. She pointed to the deployment of the Tequila unit, a covert and highly trained team sent to the Gaza perimeter due to troubling intelligence indicators, while simultaneously thousands of young people attending the Nova music festival remained unprotected in an exposed field near the border. Despite the warnings, she said, reinforcements were never summoned and the Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, was not alerted to the destabilizing signs.
She ended her statement with a vow that the truth will ultimately surface, asserting, “But thankfully, we have brave and reliable people who love our nation and this country, and thanks to them, we will ultimately reach the truth.”
{Matzav.com}
