Netanyahu’s Oct. 7 military secretary: There are ‘many gaps’ between what happened before Hamas attack and what is being told to the public

There is “undoubtedly” a gap between what happened in the lead-up to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, and what the public is being told, says retired IDF general Avi Gil, who served as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military secretary before the Hamas onslaught and in the first year of the subsequent war.

“There are many gaps,” Gil says, speaking to Channel 12 in a lengthy interview.

Over the last three years, he says, “a gap has opened up between the facts, the truth, between what happened, between what was said, and what is being presented to the public today.”

Gil says that the 55-page document Netanyahu gave to the state comptroller as part of the ombudsman’s investigation in February and released to the public “does not reflect what I saw, what I heard, and the deliberations in which I participated.”

“It reflects some of it,” says Gil, who is pressed as to whether the material was false and thus potentially criminal. “It does not faithfully reflect everything said in discussions. It doesn’t even reflect half the picture,” he says.

Gil filled 16 notebooks with handwritten notes on what he saw and heard during his tenure.

He says that he has decided to speak publicly because a state commission of inquiry into October 7 has not been created, and says that last week’s flydubai incident was also a major factor. If a commission is set up, it will get all the material he has compiled and archived for safekeeping.

Most critical, he says, were requests from bereaved families and survivors to tell the public what he knows.

He says everything that unfolded must be thoroughly examined; otherwise it will happen again.