Ronen Bar

Head of Shin Bet 2021-25

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Ronen Bar (right) in the West Bank in 2021 (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, CC3.0).

Ronen Bar is a long-serving operations officer in Israel’s Shin Bet security service, of which he was appointed head by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on 13 October 2021.

He was one of several officials who accepted responsibility for an intelligence failure over the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023. Shin Bet’s internal review nevertheless criticised government policies, including Qatari funding for Gaza.

Bar was one of several interlocutors involved in reaching a ceasefire deal in Gaza in January 2025, but was removed from the negotiating team shortly afterwards. The Israeli cabinet voted to fire him in March 2025, a move that Bar warned would threaten a Shin Bet investigation into Qatari influence over the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The High Court of Justice granted an injunction against the dismissal before Bar ended the legal dispute by announcing his resignation, effective 15 June 2025.