Shin Bet Unit 730 to guard Gadi Eisenkot after 'traitor' shouts at his home

Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of the Yashar party, is to receive full personal protection from the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security service, starting on Wednesday. Ynet reported that bodyguards from Unit 730, the agency's VIP protection unit, will replace the private security staff who have accompanied him until now, and that this is the first time he will have full Shin Bet cover. According to the same report, the change follows shouts of "traitor" heard outside his home.

The move reverses an earlier position. Haaretz reported that the agency had decided in September not to protect him, even though an advisory committee on the protection of public figures had recommended that it do so. The Jerusalem Post said a source had confirmed that Unit 730 would take over his security, and N12 and News.co.il carried the same information.

Who Eisenkot is

Eisenkot heads Yashar, a party whose Hebrew name translates roughly as "straight" or "honest". The Times of Israel described him as the de facto leader of the bloc opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel held a general election last week, and photographs published with several of the reports show him at his party's election headquarters in Tel Aviv on election night, October 28, 2026.

News.co.il linked the decision to what it called his growing public and political standing in recent months.

What the Shin Bet and Unit 730 do

The Shin Bet, formally the Israel Security Agency, is responsible for counterterrorism and internal security, and it also protects senior state officials. Unit 730 is the branch that provides personal security details to top officials and to public figures judged to be under threat. Assignment of a Unit 730 detail to a politician who does not hold a state office is a decision made by the agency itself, which explains why the question of Eisenkot's protection has played out over several months.

How the arrangement changed

Reports describe a gradual shift rather than a single decision. According to The Times of Israel, the agency long resisted assigning him its own guards despite repeated requests from his party. At first it permitted his private bodyguards to carry weapons. Then, a few days before the election, protection passed to a private company working under the direct guidance of Unit 730.

Ynet put the timing of that intermediate step at only a week and a half before the latest change, when the Shin Bet determined that a private firm would guard him. The reports agree that the new arrangement replaces privately employed guards with the agency's own personnel.

Recent security incidents

Two incidents have been reported in the days before the decision. Ynet cited the "traitor" shouts outside his residence. The Times of Israel, citing Channel 12, reported that on Monday an unidentified woman entered the building in Herzliya, a coastal city north of Tel Aviv, where Eisenkot lives, and spent several minutes searching for his apartment. Her motives were not clear, and the incident was said to be under investigation.

"Traitor" is a charge that has been aimed at political figures across the Israeli spectrum during periods of sharp public division, and security officials have treated such verbal attacks as one factor when assessing threats to politicians.

Where the reports differ

The sources frame the reasons differently. Ynet ties the change to the shouts outside his home. The Times of Israel points to several recent incidents around his personal security. News.co.il attributes it to his rising political profile. Haaretz emphasises that the agency is now doing what an advisory body had already recommended in September. None of the reports quotes the Shin Bet explaining its reasoning, and these accounts are not necessarily in conflict, but no single cause has been officially confirmed.

What the reports do not say

No statement from the Shin Bet or from the prime minister's office explaining the reversal has been reported, and it is not known what new threat assessment, if any, prompted it. The reports do not say whether the investigation into the woman in the Herzliya building has produced findings, whether anyone has been identified in connection with the shouts outside his home, or how Eisenkot or his party responded to the decision.