IDF says state comptroller accelerating probe into Oct. 7 failures, including topics that should be ‘reserved solely for a commission of inquiry’

The Military Advocate General’s Military Defense unit has filed an “urgent update” to its High Court petition against the State Comptroller’s Office, demanding it halt an investigation into the “core issues” surrounding the army’s failure to prevent the Hamas terror group’s invasion and attack on October 7, 2023, and other events in the ensuing war.

“The update concerns the accelerated activity of the state comptroller regarding the events of October 7. Despite the petition of the Military Defense and a request for an interim injunction to suspend the audit proceedings, the comptroller accelerated his activity, approached the most senior officials in the state and the defense establishment, sent questionnaires ahead of meetings for the delivery of their testimony, and even began preparing draft reports,” the Military Defense says.

Last week, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman announced that he and his team were seeking meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior political and defense officials, amid a wide-ranging probe into the failures surrounding Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.

The meetings were slated to focus on key political and security failures, the State Comptroller’s Office said, including the conduct of the security cabinet, intelligence processes, and border defense in Gaza.

“These are precisely the issues at the heart of the petition submitted by the Military Defense, issues which… are reserved solely for a commission of inquiry,” the Military Defense adds.

The comptroller’s probe is currently the only state-sanctioned comprehensive investigation into the October 7 attack, in which thousands of Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 to Gaza as hostages, sparking the ongoing war.

Some critics, including opposition members and government watchdog groups, have raised concerns that Englman, who has no legal background and was appointed under a Netanyahu-led government, may minimize political responsibility for the brutal attack.