‘If only you had listened’: Oct. 7 victims, families unveil dossier accusing Netanyahu of failing to prevent attack

Victims of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, and relatives of those murdered or taken hostage present a document they say details the policies and decisions that enabled the terror group to gain strength in the 15 years before the massacre.

Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister of Israel during nearly all of that period, and the victims and families, speaking at a press conference, accuse him of allowing the massacre to happen. The press conference takes place exactly six weeks before Netanyahu is up for for reelection in the October 27 vote.

Shelly Meshel-Yogev, whose 22-year-old daughter Libby Cohen Meguri was murdered at the Nova music festival, charges Netanyahu with pursuing a years-long policy of allowing Qatari funds into Gaza and refusing recommendations to assassinate Hamas leaders, including a reported proposal by then-Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar to kill Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the onslaught, a week before it took place.

“If only you had listened to him, Libby would be here beside me,” she says. “Prime Minister, why do I have a grave to cry at instead of having a daughter at home?”

She recounts hearing her daughter’s final words over the phone before Libby was shot dead during the attack.

“Does it make sense that I should hear her say, ‘Mom, they’re coming to shoot me again,’ and then hear the enormous barrage of gunfire that went on and on?” she asks. “Am I supposed to be grateful that I heard her saying goodbye to this world?”

Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan, 24, was taken hostage to Gaza and was one of the final 20 hostages to be released under the October 2025 ceasefire, accuses the government and Netanyahu of failing to accept responsibility and instead waging a “relentless” campaign of “lies, conspiracy theories, division, incitement and venom” against the IDF.

“We refuse to fall for this spin or to reduce the discussion of the failure to three hours on the morning of October 7,” says Zangauker, one of the most outspoken advocates for the captives’ release, referring to Netanyahu’s claims that security officials failed to wake him in the hours before the attack.

Zangauker calls on the public to read the newly released report, titled “Case 7/10,” and help hold accountable those responsible for the failures surrounding the onslaught.

“Anyone who bore responsibility – anyone whose hand was on the steering wheel – must take responsibility and go home,” she says.