Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen disclosed a dramatic intelligence detail that had been barred from publication by the military censor during a speech in the Knesset on Wednesday.

Defying the military censor due to his ministerial immunity, Cohen said that just hours before the October 7 massacre, Shin Bet leaders were informed by an agent in the Gaza Strip about a gathering of Nukhba terrorists in mosques in Gaza.

Cohen went further and publicly identified the agent by his code name—information the censor had repeatedly prohibited due to the sensitivity surrounding the agent’s activities.

Speaking during the stormy debate on legislation to establish a national state commission of inquiry into the massacre, Cohen slammed ex-Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.

“Former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, who at 3:30 a.m. convened all the division heads on Erev Chag, has not told Israeli citizens that at that very hour, there was an agent simultaneously reporting imminent terrorist activity from inside Gaza,” Cohen said.

“This agent called his handler and told him that there is a gathering of Nukhba terrorists at 3:30 a.m. in the mosques.”

“The earliest prayer in Gaza begins around 5:15 a.m. Why didn’t anyone pass this information to us? Why did we have to die there in the streets?”

“These are the people who want a state commission of inquiry,” he bitterly concluded.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)