IDF chief says he supports external commission of inquiry into Oct. 7

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says he supports an external commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7, after the military investigated its own probes.

“The expert team’s report presented today is a significant step toward a comprehensive understanding, one required of us as a society and as a system,” Zamir says in remarks released by the IDF alongside the findings of a panel of experts that looked into the IDF’s October 7 investigations.

“However, to ensure that such failures never happen again, a broader understanding is needed, one that includes inter-organizational and inter-level interfaces that have not yet been examined,” he says.

“For this purpose, a wide and comprehensive systemic investigation is now required,” Zamir adds.

Despite polls consistently showing a substantial majority of Israelis want a state commission of inquiry to be established, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition have rejected attempts to establish one. They say a commission should only be set up after the war is concluded, and reject a state commission appointed by the Supreme Court chief, claiming it would be biased against them.