TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s has fired or forced out a string of top officials since the deadly Hamas attack on Israel in 2023 that triggered the war in Gaza. The country’s domestic security chief is the newest target.

Netanyahu says he is motivated by a crisis of confidence and a need to get rid of officials who failed to prevent the Oct. 7, 2023, disaster.

But Netanyahu’s many critics say the dismissals are part of a broader campaign aimed at undermining independent government institutions. They say he is doing that to boost his reputation and maintain power while on trial for alleged corruption and facing public pressure to accept his own responsibility for policy failures in the lead-up to Oct. 7.

The announcement by Netanyahu on Sunday that he would seek to fire the director of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, came as the security service investigates ties between Netanyahu advisers and the Gulf state of Qatar.

Israel’s attorney general said Sunday that Netanyahu needed to clarify the legal basis for his decision before taking any action, noting that “the role of the Shin Bet is not to serve the personal trust of the prime minister.”

On Monday, Netanyahu shot back with a warning letter to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, saying she has no authority to intervene in the matter. The dispute adds to growing concerns about the balance of powers in Israel’s government.

Months of tensions preceded Bar’s firing

Tensions between Netanyahu and Bar had been building for months.

Bar, who was appointed to lead the Shin Bet in 2021 by a previous prime minister, accepted responsibility for his agency’s failure to halt the Oct. 7 attack ahead of time. He already has said he planned to step down before the end of his term in late 2026.

But the Shin Bet investigation into its Oct. 7 failures also pointed blame at Netanyahu for formulating a policy that focused on containing Hamas, while ignoring a growing threat.

Bar had been a key player in negotiations to free Israeli hostages held by Hamas. But he and Netanyahu differed on how to proceed. That led Netanyahu to replace him with Cabinet minister Ron Dermer, a Netanyahu confidant. Critics of Netanyahu said the move highlighted a growing tendency by Netanyahu to surround himself with loyalists.

A pair of Shin Bet investigations recently launched against advisers of Netanyahu appeared to be a tipping point.

One is examining a Netanyahu spokesperson who allegedly leaked to a German news outlet classified documents that appeared to give the prime minister political cover in ceasefire negotiations. The other is looking into claims that Qatar reportedly hired close Netanyahu aides to launch a public relations campaign in Israel.

Qatar, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, was also the source of millions of dollars in cash sent to Gaza, with Netanyahu’s approval. The money, ostensibly meant for poor families, is seen as having helped Hamas bolster its military capabilities ahead of Oct. 7.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a good governance group, said Bar’s dismissal while the probes are ongoing raises concerns that the move was made out of “political considerations.”

The blame game over Oct. 7 has begun

If Bar’s dismissal is approved by the government, he will become the first Shin Bet chief in Israeli history to be fired. But he will also be just the latest in a series of defense officials to exit under pressure from Netanyahu during the war.

In November, Netanyahu fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, saying he had lost trust in him. Gallant had repeatedly prodded Netanyahu to set out a postwar plan for Gaza.

Gallant, a former top general, was replaced by Israel Katz, a longtime Netanyahu backer with little military experience who then pressured the military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, to step down earlier this month. Halevi’s replacement then sacked the military’s spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a popular figure with the public who was rebuked by Israeli leaders for commenting on the leaked documents case.

With many top defense officials linked to the Oct. 7 failures out of office, the blame game over the deadliest attack in Israel’s history begins in earnest.

Netanyahu has repeatedly tried to pin responsibility on his security chiefs, saying he was never warned about Hamas’ intentions and was guided by their advice that Hamas was deterred.

Netanyahu has resisted growing calls for a state commission of inquiry that would examine the government policies that led to Hamas’ attacks. Such a commission could directly implicate Netanyahu.

Commentator Nadav Eyal wrote in the Yediot Ahronot daily that Netanyahu is “firing the witnesses to his failures leading up to Oct. 7 and, by so doing, is creating for himself a perfect alibi. Anything they say from now on will be because they were fired.”

Netanyahu has been challenging state institutions for years

Bar’s dismissal comes against the backdrop of a yearslong fight by Netanyahu against Israel’s state institutions, which he believes are out to get him.

Since he was indicted for corruption charges in 2019, Netanyahu has lashed out against the police, the judiciary and the media, denying any wrongdoing and accusing them of conspiring in a politically motivated witch hunt.

He took that battle a step further in early 2023. That’s when Netanyahu launched a sweeping overhaul of Israel’s justice system that he said was meant to weaken the courts and restore power to elected officials. The overhaul sparked mass protests, strikes and threats by military reservists not to serve a country whose democratic fundamentals were being eroded.

Israeli media have reported that many top security officials, including Bar, warned that the internal strife sent a message of weakness to Israel’s enemies. Many critics believe it was a factor in the timing of the Hamas attack.

Another Netanyahu target is Baharav-Miara, the country’s attorney general. The dispute over her objections to Netanyahu’s effort to fire Bar is likely to end up in the Supreme Court. With the stage set for a showdown between the judiciary and Netanyahu, his allies have already begun planning for Baharav-Miara’s removal.

In his letter to the attorney general on Monday, Netanyahu accused Baharav-Miara of abusing her authority by approving the investigations into members of his staff.

Netanyahu is surrounding himself with loyalists

The next election is scheduled for late 2026, but Netanyahu’s coalition, propped up by ultranationalist and ultra-religious parties, could collapse prematurely. They face a raft of hurdles — including over the future of the war in Gaza, the court-mandated draft of ultra-Orthodox men and the state budget.

With his political fortunes stagnating and many Israelis saying he should resign, the longtime Israeli leader — similar to his ally President Donald Trump — is looking to place loyalists in key positions.

That might make implementing his wishes easier, but it will likely deepen opposition to him and complicate his legacy.

Bar, in his response to being dismissed, said his loyalty was to the people of Israel.

“The prime minister’s expectation of a duty of personal loyalty,” he wrote, “is a fundamentally wrong expectation.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to remove Ronen Bar as head of the Shin Bet domestic security agency and will seek cabinet approval for the move this week, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

Why it matters: No government has ever fired the head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s most powerful security agency. Netanyahu’s decision comes as the agency is investigating two of his advisers for allegedly receiving payments from Qatar during the Israel-Hamas war.

• Netanyahu’s long-expected move has raised concerns among his political foes that he will replace Bar with a loyalist, politicize the organization, and potentially weaponize it against his political opponents and critics, or to crack down on the protest movement against him.
• Bar responded to the news by denouncing Netanyahu’s “expectation for personal loyalty to him” which he said violated both the public interest and the laws and values under which his agency operates.

The big picture: While the prime minister appoints the Shin Bet chief, and the cabinet approves the pick, the agency has long been seen as apolitical. Its mandate includes safeguarding Israel’s democratic institutions.

• Netanyahu is on trial in three cases of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
• He has also started taking steps to fire the attorney general tasked with prosecuting those cases.
• Netanyahu’s aides have said he was inspired by President Trump’s purging of “the deep state” and his decision to appoint loyalists to all key posts.

Behind the scenes: Netanyahu has been pressing Bar for several weeks to resign. Bar refused and told Netanyahu he can fire him if he wants to, an Israeli official tells Axios.

• Netanyahu’s loyalists in the Israeli press and on social media have been publicly attacking Bar, who spent two decades in the Shin Bet before being appointed director in 2021.
• Netanyahu’s allies have claimed the intel chief is working to undermine the PM for political reasons.
• In his statement, Bar said he’d told Netanyahu he had “several sensitive investigations” to complete, as well as getting Israel’s remaining hostages out, before offering the prime minister his resignation and offering two internal candidates to succeed him. He said he still intends to complete those tasks before stepping down.

Driving the news: Several weeks ago, with the approval of the attorney general, the Shin Bet opened an investigation into three of Netanyahu’s advisers for their alleged contacts with Qatar.

• The investigation, dubbed “Qatar-Gate” in the Israeli press, focused on alleged payments Netanyahu’s advisers facilitated and received from Qatar in return for working on improving the image of the country in Israel.
• Qatar is one of the key mediators in the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal. But Netanyahu’s decision in 2018 to ask Qatar to transfer money to Hamas in Gaza for humanitarian purposes became one of the main points of criticism against him after the Oct. 7 attack.
• The Shin Bet determined a portion of that money went to Hamas’ military build-up.

Between the lines: Bar and Netanyahu both came under criticism for the intelligence failures that allowed the Oct. 7 attack to take place.

• Bar has taken responsibility in public and private for the failures and called for a national commission of inquiry.
• Netanyahu has blocked the formation of such a commission, arguing it would be “politically slanted,” and has refused to take any responsibility.
• Bar had indicated that he would resign once all of Israel’s hostages were returned from Gaza, and had played a key role in hostage negotiations until last month, when Netanyahu froze him out of the talks.

What they’re saying: In a statement on Sunday, Netanyahu claimed he is moving to dismiss the Shin Bet director because of “ongoing and growing lack of trust.”

• “I believe this step is critical for rehabilitating the organization, achieving the objectives of the war and preventing the next catastrophe,” Netanyahu said.

The latest: Israel’s attorney general advised Netanyahu in a letter on Sunday that he can’t fire Bar because “there is a concern this decision is illegal and suffers from a conflict of interests.”

• Netanyahu and his cabinet are likely to disregard that objection, though the decision could ultimately come before the Supreme Court.

Flashback: While Bar would be the first Shin Bet chief to be fired, two previous leaders resigned, including the agency’s chief at the time of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination in 1995.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday his decision to dismiss Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, citing a lack of trust between them, Anadolu has reported.

“At all times, and especially during an existential war like this, there must be complete trust between the prime minister and the head of Shin Bet,” said Netanyahu. “Unfortunately, the opposite is true; I no longer have that trust.”

Tensions between Netanyahu and the domestic security service escalated in recent days following Shin Bet’s internal investigation into the 7 October 2023 Hamas cross-border incursion. Netanyahu dismissed the report’s findings, saying that they failed to answer key questions.

The findings prompted opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz to demand an apology from Netanyahu. They accused him of deflecting blame.

READ: Conflict escalates between Netanyahu, Shin Bet chief due to 7 October defeat

Shin Bet acknowledged its failure to assess Hamas’ capabilities before the attack, but said that Netanyahu’s policies were also among the underlying causes.

The prime minister argued that Bar’s sacking was critical to achieving “war goals and total victory” in Gaza. The government will review the proposal on Wednesday, according to Israel’s Channel 12.

While several military and intelligence officials have resigned, taking partial responsibility for the failures of 7 October, Netanyahu has refused to accept any responsibility and has dismissed opposition calls for his government’s resignation and an early election.

Earlier on Sunday, police summoned former Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman for questioning after Netanyahu filed a complaint against him, reported Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

In an interview on Thursday, Argaman threatened to reveal sensitive information from his meetings with Netanyahu if the prime minister acted unlawfully. “We must end the war in Gaza immediately and bring back all the prisoners,” he said. “There is nothing in Gaza that justifies staying there.”

The next day, Netanyahu filed a complaint with Police Commissioner Daniel Levy. “I am asking you to open an immediate investigation, as all red lines have been crossed,” said the Israeli leader. “The former head of the Shin Bet chose to threaten and blackmail a sitting prime minister, using the methods of organised crime gangs, as if he were a mafia leader rather than a former Israeli security official.”

According to Netanyahu, “This crime is part of a broader campaign of blackmail and threats led by the current head of the Shin Bet [Ronen Bar], whose goal is to prevent me from making the necessary decisions to reform the Shin Bet after its disastrous failure on 7 October, 2023.”

In its response, Shin Bet called Netanyahu’s accusations “serious” and stressed that, “Ronen Bar dedicated all his time and efforts to safeguarding national security, working to bring back Israeli captives, and defending democracy.” The security service added that any other claims were baseless.

READ: Hamas deceived us, ex-Israel chief of staff says