AVIV TEL According to an Israeli civilian investigation published Tuesday, the Israeli government failed in its fundamental responsibility to safeguard its citizens during the terrorist assaults on October 7 and in the run-up to them.
The Israeli defense and intelligence establishment, along with civilian leaders like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were blamed by the Civilian Board of Inquiry, which has been looking into evidence of intelligence failures surrounding the Hamas attacks. The board claimed that Netanyahu silenced “dissenting voices” and failed to strike Hamas in advance.
“The foremost sin was arrogance, which blinded state leaders and security officials from confronting reality,” the Hebrew-language NBC News report stated.
The board, which is composed of former members of the military, civil service, judges, and relatives of the Oct. 7 victims, is unaffiliated with Israel’s government and cannot formally force it to take action.
In addition to calling for the government to conduct an official investigation into the assaults, the study, which claims to have interviewed 120 witnesses, also criticized Netanyahu for not doing so in spite of requests from the relatives of hostages and other victims.
The report also claimed that Netanyahu is mostly to blame for the money for quiet strategy, citing claims that the prime minister urged the Qatari government to pay millions of dollars monthly to the Gaza Strip in an effort to keep the calm.
Netanyahu’s office was contacted by NBC News for comment, but they did not respond.
Hamas fighters infiltrated Israel from southern Gaza and fired thousands of missiles during the attacks, killing almost 1,200 people and taking 250 captive. The event, which was dubbed the greatest Jewish attack since the Holocaust, rocked Israeli society and undermined years of stability.
According to local officials, the conflict that followed the strike has killed over 44,000 people in Gaza, the most of whom were women and children. It has also destroyed many of the enclave’s buildings and forced a large portion of its inhabitants to the verge of starvation.
A “glaring failure” by Israeli intelligence departments was also named as a “major cause” of the Oct. 7 disaster in the Israeli investigation.
It notably blamed military intelligence and Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, for failing to act on concerns or deliver timely warnings.
Israel’s intelligence services, who have long been regarded as some of the best in the world and cover the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip with a variety of technology tools, including eavesdropping and human intelligence, seemed caught off guard by the strike.
Shin Bet stated in a response that was included with the committee’s report that while it valued civilian involvement, a state commission of investigation has to be set up.
Shin Bet’s calls for an official investigation were backed by Benny Gantz, a former defense minister and a major opponent of Netanyahu’s whoquit Israel’s military Cabinet in June, who stated that the inquiry “must be established without delay.”
He stated that an official investigation would aid in “initiating the process of national healing, restoring public trust, and strengthening national resilience” in a response that was appended to the committee’s findings.
Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was also chastised in the report for “reducing troop presence near Gaza, the lack of preparation of southern forces, and ignoring multiple warning signs.”
Gallant has been contacted by NBC News for comment.
In July, the Israeli military released an assessment of its failures to protect the residents of Be eri, one of the communities hit the hardest by the attack, where more than 100 people were killed and dozens taken hostage in an assault that left much of the kibbutz destroyed.
The report, based on an internal inquiry, said the Israeli military failed in its mission to protect the kibbutz,a few miles from the border with the Gaza Strip, because of grave errors in Israel s response to the multipronged assault.
In September,former soldiers from a military observationunit told NBC News that their warnings about suspicious Hamas activity ahead of the Oct. 7 terror attacks were repeatedly ignored.
One of the previous observers, Roni Lifshitz, stated that things may have turned out differently if I had been appreciated a little bit more—not lot, but a little. It’s despair and rage, mostly annoyance that no one paid attention to me when I was there.
Freddie Clayton reported from London, and Omer Bekin from Tel Aviv.
Note: Every piece of content is rigorously reviewed by our team of experienced writers and editors to ensure its accuracy. Our writers use credible sources and adhere to strict fact-checking protocols to verify all claims and data before publication. If an error is identified, we promptly correct it and strive for transparency in all updates, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!