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Nadav Argama

The Shin Bet’s second-to-none counterintelligence efforts focused on sabotage, terrorist activities, and other security threats to the citizens of Israel.

By United with Israel Staff

The director of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security apparatus, announced on Thursday that his agency stopped hundreds of terror attacks in 2019.

“In the past year, we have thwarted over 450 significant terror attacks, and we have allowed Israeli citizens to have full and comfortable lives in the day-to-day without knowing what’s going on underground,” said Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman at the UVID International Conference and Exhibition on Unmanned Vehicles in Tel Aviv.

The Shin Bet, tirelessly conducts internal counterintelligence focused on sabotage, terrorist activities, and other security matters to vigilantly protect the Israeli people.

Argaman said that his agency’s use of advanced technology “allows us to maintain our qualitative advantage over challenging rivals” and is a key component in its success.

“We try to watch Israeli citizens so they can quietly live their day-to-day lives,” he said. “Israeli technology and industry are always close to our hearts. We buy Israeli technologies before anything else. Innovation and startups are part of what we are.”

The number of thwarted attacks in 2019 nearly matches those of 2018.

Last year, Argaman warned the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, that despite the agency’s success in thwarting 480 terror attacks, the country must not be lulled into a false sense of security.

“In the Gaza Strip we stand between a possible military campaign on the one hand, and an attempt to stabilize the humanitarian situation of the residents of Gaza on the other,” he said. “The reality is very complex. We can say that on the surface we observe relative calm, but we must emphasize that this is on the surface.”

“Hamas is trying with all its might to carry out terrorist attacks from Judea and Samaria with guidance from the Gaza Strip, Turkey, and Lebanon,” Argaman warned.