From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Independent commission: Cabinet members directly responsible for ‘collapse of the government system on Oct. 7’
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet were directly responsible for the “collapse of the government system on October 7,” the independent Civilian Commission of Inquiry probing the failure to prevent the Hamas attack finds.
Following dozens of hearings and the testimony of around 120 witnesses over the past four months, the commission determines that the cabinet ministers, “in most of the various ministries,” bear the blame for the government’s “inability to provide a response to the families of the people missing and captive; the lack of response to the needs of combat soldiers to reach the southern and northern fronts; the lack of response and care for the families of the evacuees and their children – in both the north and the south.”
Likewise, the IDF and Israel Police “are solely responsible for the lack of coordination between them and the many failures that prevented the rescuing of many Nova festival-goers in Re’im,” the commission states, calling on the two bodies to strengthen their coordination going forward.
