Critical intelligence gap exposed as Israel learns festival location wasn’t flagged before Hamas slaughter began.
A newly revealed internal investigation shows that the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) was not informed about the Nova music festival held at the Re’im parking area on the night of October 6–7, 2023 — just hours before Hamas launched its genocidal terror assault across the Gaza border, Haaretz reported Monday.
Despite a Shin Bet representative participating in at least two joint preparatory meetings with police and the IDF, the crucial detail about the mass gathering — located perilously close to Gaza — was never passed up the chain of command inside the Shin Bet. Why such vital information failed to move upward remains unclear and is now the focus of intense scrutiny.
Because the festival was never flagged, it did not appear in the Shin Bet’s situational assessments as the Hamas-led invasion began at dawn. According to the report, even the IDF failed to notify the Shin Bet about how close the festival was to the border — a proximity that ultimately contributed to the catastrophic loss of life when thousands of unarmed Israeli civilians were caught in the path of Hamas gunmen, rockets, and coordinated atrocities.
The Shin Bet’s operations room reportedly learned of the festival only three hours after the massacre began, after chaotic, desperate reports of mass casualties began pouring in from survivors and first responders.
A senior security source admitted that had the agencies been fully aware of the event — even during the night — it “might have influenced decision-making processes” both within the Shin Bet and across the entire security establishment. Earlier awareness may have altered troop deployment, reinforcements, and early-warning procedures, especially as Hamas terrorists stormed the area with the explicit intention of murdering, torturing, and abducting civilians.
The failure underscores how deeply the catastrophic events of October 7th exposed blind spots in Israel’s security coordination — blind spots exploited by Hamas and its Iranian backers in their attempt to inflict maximum Jewish civilian casualties.
Even as Israel continues dismantling Hamas’ terror infrastructure, the internal investigations now underway aim to ensure that no intelligence detail — especially one involving large gatherings of civilians near hostile borders — ever falls through the cracks again.
