Since Israel’s disengagement from Gaza in 2005, the Shin Bet failed to maintain a single significant intelligence source within Hamas’s leadership, Ynet reported, calling it “a terrible fact that explains much of the failure.”

The Shin Bet even prevented other Israeli intelligence agencies from establishing a presence in Gaza.

Following the disengagement, ties between Israel and Gaza steadily eroded. Gazan laborers largely stopped entering Israel along with key opportunities for recruiting human sources. Gaza lacks a functioning economy, tourism, or diplomatic relations, and there were no routine meetings in third countries—classic entry points for intelligence services.

At the same time, Hamas tightened its defenses. Over the years it carried out public purges and executions, sealed land, sea, and crossing routes, and fully absorbed the lessons from Israel’s failed intelligence-gathering operation in Khan Younis in 2018, during which IDF Druze officer Lt. Col. Mahmoud Kheir al-Din was killed.

Israel failed to grasp how deeply Hamas had internalized those lessons, the report claimed.

Formally, the Shin Bet never abandoned efforts to recruit agents—but in practice, it achieved little. Veteran officials blame the two most recent Shin Bet chiefs, Nadav Argaman and Ronen Bar—both alumni of elite operational units—arguing that under their leadership the service became “an auxiliary to special operations,” neglecting the long-term handler–source relationship essential to human intelligence. Although Bar designated Gaza HUMINT (human sources) as a priority, the push yielded no breakthroughs.

The report also noted that about a decade ago, the Shin Bet blocked efforts by the Mossad and Unit 504, which specializes in running human sources, from operating in Gaza. The move stemmed from concerns that their activities might clash with the Shin Bet’s own attempts to recruit significant assets within Hamas.

Consequently, on the eve of October 7, the Shin Bet did receive troubling indicators, but its overall assessment was that Hamas was not seeking a major escalation.

(YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)