Gonen and The Tip From Inside Hamas

Gonen barged into his commander’s office. “Where is Ronen?”

“Goni, what are you doing?”

“Did you call him, or no?”

“Goni.”

Gonen moved to Gabi’s desk. “Gabi, are you serious? Call him Gabi! Call him!”

“Drop it, Goni.”

“Are you serious? What don’t you understand, Gabi? They’re going to attack us Gabi and you’re not going to pick up the phone?”

“I’m not calling him for this shit, Goni!”

“Why not? Huh? Explain it to me. I want you to explain it to me, Gabi!”

“Goni, we have checked with the army. Everything is routine. Goni, it’s Hamas. They’re always training. They always want to kill us. I’m not going to tell the whole system every time we get a tip that Hamas is attacking us. Your asset gave me nothing. Not a time. Not a location. And you want me to go to Ronen with shit? Drop it.”

“I will call the fucking prime minister myself if I have to!”

“What’s wrong with you? Did you not hear what I just said? Drop it!”

Gonen now pointed his finger at his boss. “I don’t agree with you, Gabi. I don’t agree with you.” His chest was heaving. He turned around and paced to the door. He left.

“Son of a bitch,” Gabi muttered to himself. Now he wondered if he should call Ronen for damage control. To get ahead of Gonen. His job was to save lives but in order to do that he could not overwhelm his boss with every tip his guys got from the field. They had to be smart and efficient. They had to know when to act and when to ignore.

Gonen and his precious Musa, he thought. If he calls Ronen and he’s right, he makes me look bad. If he’s wrong, he also makes me look bad. “Son of a bitch,” he said.

He was tapping his pen on his desk. His left leg was shaking.

He checked the time. Half past nine AND a Friday night. “Son of a bitch,” he said.

He picked up his office phone and called the head of the Shin Bet.

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The X.com account s54fg528dxx1 had posted 17 times over the last thirteen years, all in Hebrew. The last came on Oct. 5, 2023. It said “Imminent attack.”

Besides the author, only one other person knew about this X profile. On that day Gonen Ben Shalom saw the notification on his phone. It made him stand out of his chair in Shin Bet headquarters in Tel Aviv. He got to work.