IDF says state comptroller must halt probe into ‘core issues’ of army’s Oct. 7 failure: ‘Exceeding his authority’

The IDF’s chief defense attorney, Col. Ofira Elkabetz, has filed a petition against the State Comptroller’s Office, demanding it halt an examination into the “core issues” surrounding the army’s failure to prevent Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, and other events in the war.

The Military Advocate General’s Military Defense unit claims that State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman is “exceeding his authority and is causing serious and irreversible harm to the rights of IDF servicemembers, and the work of any investigative committee that may be established in the future.”

“However, the defense emphasizes that the state comptroller will still have over 35 important audit issues concerning the IDF, in connection with the events of October 7 and the war,” the Military Defense adds.

The comptroller’s probe into the events of October 7 is currently the only state-sanctioned comprehensive investigation into the attack, during which some 1,200 people were massacred by terrorists from Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups in southern Israel, and 251 people taken hostage.

Critics of the government, including members of the opposition and several government watchdog groups, have expressed concern that the probe by Englman, who has no legal background and was appointed to his position under a Netanyahu-led government, could seek to minimize political responsibility for the devastating October 7 onslaught.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has refused to establish a state commission of inquiry.