Knesset panel rejects proposal to establish October 7 state commission of inquiry

Bereaved families accuse government of ‘burying the truth,’ breaking promise to establish commission after war, as coalition members of State Control Committee oppose bill

By Ariela Karmel

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22 October 2025, 2:34 pm Edit

Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.

The Knesset State Control Committee voted down a proposal Wednesday to establish a state commission of inquiry into the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, blocking the latest opposition-led effort to launch an official and impartial investigation into failures that took place before and during the onslaught.

Committee members from the ruling Likud and ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties voted against the motion, while opposition MKs from Yesh Atid, Blue and White, and Ra’am backed it.

The coalition’s two-member majority on the committee ensured that the proposal was defeated.

The proposal would have allowed a committee, under the State Comptroller Law, to investigate the events surrounding the catastrophic Hamas-led invasion and massacre, which killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 kidnapped in the country’s worst security and intelligence failure, as well as the subsequent war.

Opposition MKs condemned the outcome as a moral failure, with Democrats MK Efrat Rayten Marom saying responsibility for the disaster “lies squarely with [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” and calling the absence of any representative from the Prime Minister’s Office at the hearing “a disgrace.”

Committee chair Yesh Atid MK Mickey Levy warned that without such an inquiry, “public trust will continue to erode.”

A bereaved father appearing before the Knesset State Control Committee meeting in Jerusalem, October 22, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Bereaved family members expressed their outrage.

Reut Edri, whose son Ido was murdered at the Nova music festival, told the committee that she had been “explicitly promised” by members of the coalition that a state commission of inquiry would be established immediately at the end of the war.

“There can be no revival [of the country] without responsibility and a real investigation,” she continued. “We will not accept anything else. We will take the people to the streets and won’t give up.”

The October Council, representing over 200 bereaved families, accused the coalition of “burying the truth.”

“The Knesset members who voted today against establishing a state commission of inquiry see us — the bereaved families, the residents of the south, the victims of October 7 — as enemies. Instead of joining our fight for the truth, they repeatedly choose to fight against us and the State of Israel,” they continued, adding that “the grace period for the Knesset is over.”

People visit the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, as Israel marks the second year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Oct. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

“We will continue to insist on the just and relevant demand to establish a state investigative committee into the October 7 disaster. Israel cannot afford to move forward without learning the lessons from the greatest failure in its history,” said Opposition MK Eitan Ginzburg from the Blue and White party, who was set to present a bill in the Knesset later Wednesday to establish a commission of inquiry.

The government is considering establishing and appointing its own panel to investigate the catastrophic Hamas invasion and subsequent war instead of an impartial state commission of inquiry.

Bereaved families and opposition lawmakers have accused the government of working to absolve itself of any responsibility over the October 7 failures.

Polls show a majority of the Israeli public believes there should be a state commission of inquiry.

The government has long opposed the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 catastrophe, originally on the grounds that such an inquiry could not be conducted while Israel was at war, but later due to accusations by several cabinet ministers that Supreme Court President Isaac Amit could not be trusted to appoint a fair-minded judge or retired judge to head the panel.

The High Court of Justice told the government on October 15 that there is “no real argument” against the need to establish a state commission of inquiry in its decision over petitions demanding the establishment of such an inquiry. It gave the government 30 days to submit a new update about “the fate” of such a commission.

Netanyahu has avoided taking responsibility for the massacre, repeatedly asserting that the security establishment — not political leaders — failed to prevent the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.