Head of Shin Bet warns Ben-Gvir's attacks at Al-Aqsa causing ‘indescribable damage’ to Israel

The head of the domestic Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, issued a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warning that attacks by Jewish settlers and the National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound are causing “indescribable damage” to Israel.

The letter, reported by Channel 12 News yesterday, expressed Bar’s deep concern as a security official to several key Israeli ministers. He described the radical Jewish settler gangs known as “Hilltop Youths”, which are backed by the Israeli government as a group that has “long ago become a hotbed of violence against Palestinians.”

He pointed out that these settlers are emboldened by lenient treatment and “a secret sense of backing” from the police under the leadership of far-right Ben-Gvir.

“The loss of fear of administrative detention due to the conditions they get in prison and the money given to them upon their release by MKs, together with legitimisation and praise, alongside delegitimisation of security forces, contributes to the phenomenon’s continuation,” wrote Bar.

He emphasised that the solution doesn’t lie with the Shin Bet but rather requires action from the state’s leaders.

He wrote, “The damage to the State of Israel, especially now and to the vast majority of the settlers, is indescribable: global delegitimisation, even among our greatest allies; spreading thin the IDF’s personnel which is already struggling to keep up with all its missions and which wasn’t intended to deal with this; vengeful attacks that are sparking another front in the multi-front war we are in; putting more players into the cycle of terror; a slippery slope to the feeling of a lack of governance; another obstacle to creating local alliances that we need against the Shiite axis; and above all, a massive stain on Judaism and us all.”

Tensions have been running high across the West Bank since Israel launched a deadly military offensive against the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 40,300 Palestinians since 7 October 2023.

At least 635 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 5,400 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

In response to Bar’s letter, Ben-Gvir’s office accused the Shin Bet head of “trying to spin and attack Minister Ben-Gvir to deflect from the discussion of his responsibility for the concepts and failures that led to October 7.”

“It won’t help him. After [former IDF intelligence chief Aharon] Haliva, he is the next one who must quit,” the statement said.

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