Amid probe into aide’s alleged doctoring of minutes, PM says he was awoken the minute Hamas attack began

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the Wall Street Journal that he was woken up by his staff at 6:29 a.m. on October 7, which was the minute that Hamas’s onslaught of southern Israel began.

“On October 7, they woke me up at 6:29 in the morning,” Netanyahu recalls during the interview.

Netanyahu’s office has apparently made an effort to present the premier as having been responding to the attack from the moment it began.

Tzachi Braverman, Netanyahu’s chief of staff, allegedly altered the office’s official minutes from that day to state that the premier received the first update from his military secretary at the time, Maj. Gen. Avi Gil, at 6:29 a.m. and not 6:40 a.m. when he actually got the call.

Braverman is being investigated for forgery and fraud over the incident.

The Journal story appears to go to great lengths to tell Netanyahu’s account, stating that Israeli security officials knew something was awry for hours but didn’t update the prime minister.

Netanyahu and his aides have sought to lay primary responsibility for the October 7 onslaught on the feet of the security establishment.

Also in the WSJ interview, Netanyahu reiterates his stance against a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, saying he will only agree to a temporary pause in order to resume fighting and ensure that Hamas is completely dismantled.

His opponents have warned that this would leave the majority of the 100 remaining hostages in Gaza indefinitely.

Hamas has also long asserted that it won’t agree to release hostages unless it has guarantees that the first phase of the ceasefire being negotiated will subsequently transition to the second and third stages during which a permanent cessation of hostilities will be agreed upon.

Netanyahu has also refused to allow a role for the Palestinian Authority in the post-war management of Gaza in what Israel’s security establishment has warned robs Jerusalem of a viable alternative to Hamas’s rule and all but ensures that the IDF will continue fighting the terror group for the foreseeable future as vacuums temporarily created by military operations are re-filled by Hamas shortly thereafter.