Channel 12 Alleges Netanyahu Declined a Hamas Leadership Strike Before October 7
Channel 12 alleged that Benjamin Netanyahu declined to authorize a strike on Hamas leaders in September 2023. The Times of Israel, which summarized the account on 15 October 2026, said his office declined to comment.
The account centers on a meeting on 14 September 2023, just over three weeks before the Hamas massacre. Channel 12's source was an unnamed senior official who attended. The allegation concerns a choice about military action at that meeting, not proof that participants knew the plan for the October 7 attack.
The alleged exchange with Ronen Bar
The Times of Israel's Stav Levaton described Channel 12's account of a meeting with senior officials from Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service, before Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. Netanyahu raised targeted killings, and then Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar said Hamas leaders could be struck in their Gaza offices.
The anonymous participant said Netanyahu preferred a smaller action unless a major attack occurred. The accessible account did not identify the proposed targets by name. It described a discussion and a refusal to authorize the proposed strike, rather than publishing an operational order or meeting transcript.
A parallel proposal involving Qatar
Channel 12 also alleged that Netanyahu directed the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, known as COGAT, to explore Qatari funded economic benefits in exchange for calm. Its account included a meeting with Qatari envoy Mohammed al-Emadi.
COGAT is the Israeli body coordinating government activity concerning the Palestinian territories. The allegation is that economic incentives were being explored alongside the discussion of military options. It does not establish from a published payment record that a particular transfer was approved or delivered at that meeting.
Israel News Pulse could not independently obtain the original Channel 12 segment or the underlying meeting records. The Times of Israel recorded the Prime Minister's Office declining comment on this specific account; that is neither a denial nor confirmation of its substance.
Bar's separate defamation case
The disclosure followed reporting on 14 October that Bar had sued Netanyahu for NIS 3 million. The case concerns Netanyahu's 28 September statements accusing Bar of failing to warn him before the October 7 attack, not a judicial finding about the proposed September strike.
In the lawsuit as described by The Times of Israel, Bar said he had issued repeated warnings before the attack and that Shin Bet personnel supplied information to the prime minister's military secretariat during the night. He also acknowledged that the agency had not anticipated the full scale of the Hamas assault. Netanyahu's accusation and Bar's account remain competing positions in that dispute.
The accountability question
Hamas terrorists and other attackers killed about 1,200 people and abducted 251 on 7 October 2023. The continuing dispute concerns both policy before the massacre and the handling of warnings immediately before it. Those are related questions, but they require different records and testimony.
The Times of Israel reported on 14 October that Netanyahu had not agreed to establish a state commission of inquiry. The September meeting allegation adds a specific decision for scrutiny. It cannot establish that an alternative strike would have prevented the massacre, or substitute for a complete examination of the political, intelligence and military decisions preceding it.
