Israeli Military Chief Demands Comprehensive Investigation Into October 7 Hamas Attack Failures

More than 1200 Israelis lost their lives during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

Israel's top military commander has issued a call on Monday for a comprehensive "systemic investigation" into the critical failures that enabled Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, while the government continues to delay establishing an official state commission to investigate the matter.

Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir made this request following the release of findings from an expert committee he appointed, which he considers the conclusion of the military's internal investigations into the devastating October 7 events.

"The expert committee's report presented today represents a significant step toward developing the comprehensive understanding that we, both as a society and as an organization, require," Zamir stated in the report.

"However, to ensure such failures never happen again, we need a broader understanding—one that examines the inter-organizational and inter-hierarchical interfaces that have not yet been properly investigated," he emphasized.

"To accomplish this, a broad and comprehensive systemic investigation is now essential."

According to polling data, a substantial majority of Israelis across political divides support establishing an inquiry to identify those responsible for the authorities' failure to prevent the attack, which was the deadliest in Israel's history.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has consistently refused to establish such a commission, arguing that it cannot be formed until the Gaza conflict concludes.

Under Israeli law, while the government must decide to create a national commission, its members must be appointed by the supreme court.

Netanyahu's right-wing coalition government has repeatedly accused the court of political bias and leftist leanings.

Efforts to reduce the supreme court's authority were central to the government's judicial reform initiative—a controversial project that deeply divided Israeli society before the war began.

When pressed in parliament by opposition members to clarify his position on creating a national commission, Netanyahu accused the opposition of attempting to transform it into a "political tool".

Instead, he proposed establishing an inquiry commission "based on broad national consensus," which he claimed would follow the model used by the United States after the September 11 attacks—a suggestion immediately rejected by opposition leaders.

Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack resulted in 1,221 deaths on the Israeli side, primarily civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

This attack triggered a two-year retaliatory military campaign in Gaza, which has resulted in at least 69,179 Palestinian deaths, according to the health ministry in Hamas-governed Gaza.

The expert committee's report acknowledged that Hamas's attack "occurred against the backdrop of high-quality and exceptional intelligence that was already in the possession of various IDF (military) units".

"From an internal military perspective, it is evident that despite the warning, the necessary military actions were not taken to improve the IDF's alertness or readiness, nor to adjust the deployment of forces across the different arenas," the report stated.

The committee determined that most factors explaining the failure extended across several years and multiple branches of the military.

This indicated what the report described as a "long-standing systemic and organizational failure."

In February, an internal Israeli military investigation into Hamas's attack acknowledged the armed forces' "complete failure" to prevent the assault, noting that for years the military had underestimated Hamas's capabilities and intentions.