IDF, state comptroller reach compromise on review of Oct. 7 security failures
Framework allows investigation of secondary security issues to begin immediately, while process on ‘core issues’ will be established by February
Michael Horovitz is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel
The military and state comptroller reached an agreement Thursday that will allow the latter to probe the Israel Defense Forces’ failure to prevent Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, a joint statement said.
The announcement came a day after State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman told the High Court of Justice that talks on the matter with IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi had failed, asking it to remove an injunction freezing his review of the military.
The agreement follows a year of the security establishment’s resistance of the investigation at the time, claiming it would steer officials’ attention away from the war effort to defending their conduct. Englman charged that his investigation was both necessary and feasible during the war.
On Thursday, the IDF and Englman agreed on a framework that “allows the establishment of the important review, ensures the focus of the IDF and its commanders on the war and the process of lesson learning inside the IDF,” the joint statement read.
According to the framework, secondary issues, such as the Home Front’s preparedness for a major assault, and the process whereby permission was given for the Supernova music festival to go ahead in Re’im, could be examined immediately.
A mechanism to review “core issues,” such as the military’s failures in battle on October 7, will be agreed on by February 2025, taking into account the war situation at that time.
Halevi welcomed the agreement, which he said would allow the military to continue focusing on the war effort, according to the statement.
Englman said his review had to cover political, military, and civilian levels, adding that the framework would allow his probe to be carried out in a “staged manner in parallel to the continuation of the important operations of IDF soldiers eradicating our enemies.”
The state comptroller announced in December he would be conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the multi-level failures leading up to, during, and after the October 7 Hamas invasion and atrocities, including military and intelligence failures. However, the probe was strongly opposed by several government watchdog groups, who expressed concern that it would interfere with the IDF’s operational capabilities during wartime and couldd minimize political responsibility for the devastating onslaught.
Some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage in the Hamas cross-border assault on southern Israel, which took the government and security establishment by surprise.
Originally, the first section of the comptroller’s investigation was to focus more on civilian issues than military and intelligence concerns, such as the evacuation to hospitals of those injured in the October 7 attacks and the evacuation of the general population from the war zones, which would need to be addressed by the IDF Home Front Command and the IDF Medical Corps.
The second section of the investigation was to deal with more sensitive issues, such as the decision to license the music festival by Kibbutz Re’im close to the Gaza border, where hundreds of people were massacred, and what security arrangements were made there.
A third part of Englman’s investigation was to look at the conduct of policymakers and the military on October 7 itself; intelligence preparedness before October 7; the defense posture on the Gaza border before the Hamas invasion; and the preparedness of civilian security squads in the Gaza border region before the war, among other matters.
In response to petitions against the probe, the High Court earlier this year ordered the IDF, the Shin Bet and the Mossad, as well as other state agencies, to meet with the comptroller’s representatives and reach a compromise.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.
