Netanyahu evades question on whether he bears responsibility for Hamas massacres

Taking his first questions from reporters since the Hamas massacres on October 7, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu avoids answering whether he bears responsibility for the Palestinian terror group’s deadly onslaught.

“After the war everyone will have to give answers, myself included,” he says, repeating comments he made earlier in the week. “There was an awful debacle.”

“There will not be a stone left unturned,” Netanyahu says, adding, though, that his focus right now is on winning and “saving the state.”

He is asked whether his government’s judicial overhaul distracted attention from addressing security challenges, and says the legislative proposals to weaken the courts are “no longer on the agenda,” and that the leaderships’ disagreements have been resolved.

The premier also defends a 2011 agreement to release over 1,000 Palestinian terror prisoners in exchange for captive soldier Gilad Shalit, while denying his policies have strengthened Hamas. “There were some very difficult things in it,” he says regarding the Shalit deal, adding the day will come to debate its wisdom.