High Court gives state a month to explain why it’s not forming state inquiry for Oct. 7 failures

The High Court of Justice orders the state to explain by July 28 why it hasn’t yet formed a state commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7 and the subsequent war in Gaza.

The decision in the petition, which was filed on June 16 by the Movement for Quality Government organization, indicates that the court isn’t rejecting the case outright and that the state now must submit its response.

Justice Gila Canfy-Steinitz is overseeing the case even though a commission of inquiry could potentially review decisions made by her husband, former Likud lawmaker and minister Yuval Steinitz, who quit politics in 2022.

The government has insisted that the time to probe the grave failures that enabled Hamas’s October 7 onslaught will be after the war in Gaza is over. Its members have adamantly refused to accept responsibility for the failures.