Israel’s army chief urges systemic investigation into Hamas attack failures as government resists state inquiry, citing wartime constraints.
JERUSALEM: Israel’s military chief has called for a “systemic investigation” into the failures that enabled Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.
Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir made the demand as the government continues to resist establishing a formal state commission of inquiry.
His statement followed publication of an expert committee report marking completion of the military’s internal investigations into the deadly assault.
“The expert committee’s report presented today is a significant step toward achieving the comprehensive understanding that we, as a society and as an organisation, require,” Zamir said.
He emphasized that broader understanding is needed across organizational and hierarchical interfaces not yet examined.
“To ensure that such failures never recur, a broad and comprehensive systemic investigation is now necessary.”
Polls show widespread Israeli public support across political divides for an inquiry to determine responsibility for the security failures.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has refused to establish a state commission, arguing it cannot happen during the Gaza war.
Under Israeli law, the government must create national commissions while the supreme court appoints their members.
Netanyahu’s right-wing government accuses the court of political bias and left-leaning tendencies.
The government’s judicial reform plan to curb court powers deeply divided Israel before the war.
Netanyahu told parliament the opposition wants to turn any inquiry into a “political tool.”
He proposed a commission based on “broad national consensus” modeled after the US 9/11 investigation.
The opposition immediately rejected his proposal.
Hamas’s October 7 attack killed 1,221 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed at least 69,179 Palestinians, Gaza’s health ministry reports.
The expert committee acknowledged Hamas attacked despite “high-quality and exceptional intelligence” possessed by military units.
It found necessary military actions weren’t taken to improve alertness or adjust force deployment.
The committee determined failure factors spanned years and multiple military branches.
This indicated “long-standing systemic and organisational failure.”
An internal military investigation in February acknowledged “complete failure” to prevent the assault.
It said the military had underestimated Hamas’s capabilities for years. – AFP
