Herzog: Israel must establish a state commission of inquiry into Oct 7

Speaking before families of hostages and victims of October 7 and the Gaza war, President Isaac Herzog says Israel “must establish a state commission of inquiry” into the events, which the government has been resisting for nearly two years.

“This is the right course of action, and it must be done as soon as possible,” he tells the conference of the October Council, a lobby group representing family members of hostages and those killed on October 7 as well as survivors of the attack.

“We must study the failure and the disaster in depth, this entire catastrophe, in order to understand, learn, and draw lessons. We must establish a state commission of inquiry,” he says.

הנשיא הרצוג בכנס החירום של "מועצת אוקטובר" הדורשת להקים ועדת חקירה ממלכתית – ״עלינו להקים ועדת חקירה ממלכתית. זו הדרך הנכונה וכך יש לעשות בהקדם״ pic.twitter.com/NbT7poLRxk

— דפנה ליאל (@DaphnaLiel) September 7, 2025

“The role of such a commission, composed of a diverse and broad membership that includes various disciplines, as is fitting for examining a historical disaster of this magnitude, is not political,” he says. (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed a court-appointed state commission would be a biased and political one.)

“Its role, first and foremost, is to look toward the future: to get to the root of the failures, the deficiencies that led us to October 7, and to correct them so that they never happen again,” he argues. “Avoiding the establishment of a commission of inquiry into the events of October 7, in my view, is a serious mistake.”