PM portrays security chiefs, political rivals as opposed to toppling Hamas in publicized response to comptroller’s Oct. 7 probe

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman that he examined the possibility of conquering the Gaza Strip many times in the years before the October 7, 2023, attacks, but the security establishment repeatedly shot it down, arguing that it would take a long, costly war without domestic or international legitimacy, and that there was no governing alternative to Hamas ready.

In his answers, released this evening, Netanyahu builds the case with curated quotes that he repeatedly pushed for assassinating Hamas leaders, but security chiefs consistently argued against the idea.

Netanyahu included in his response to Englman a cabinet meeting from July 2014, during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.

He brings up conquering Gaza, and then-economy minister Naftali Bennett, who says, “I never talked about ‘conquering Gaza.'” According to the protocols, Netanyahu responds that the only way to demilitarize Gaza is to conquer it militarily.

Bennett is the leading challenger to Netanyahu in this year’s elections, and the prime minister has a clear political incentive to portray Bennett as someone who argued against taking out Hamas.

Netanyahu includes quotes from the same discussion from other figures who are today highly critical of Netanyahu, including then- IDF deputy chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, chief of staff Benny Gantz, and defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, all of whom argued against taking the Gaza Strip.

Gantz, according to the records, called the idea “a strategic mistake,” while Eisenkot said it would be “a severe mistake.” Then-foreign minister Avigdor Liberman, who now leads an opposition party, said that “I am not recommending conquering or a ground invasion.”

Netanyahu shares selected quotes from subsequent debates that show senior security officials, including the head of the Shin Bet, saying that Hamas’s only ability to surprise Israel is through cross-border tunnels. He selects a 2016 discussion in which Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman told Netanyahu that killing Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif would not cause Hamas to collapse, while the prime minister continues to argue for their assassination.

In the same debate, Eizenkot argues against bringing down the Hamas government and brushes aside the idea that Israel’s intelligence wouldn’t pick up on a potential Hamas attack.

He shares quotes from a 2021 discussion after Operation Guardian of the Walls against Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in which Netanyahu pushes again for assassinating Sinwar and Deif, while then-IDF chief of staff Aviv Kochavi firmly opposes such a policy.

A 2022 Shin Bet document shared by Netanyahu suggests easing economic pressure on Hamas instead of defeating the organization.

Netanyahu shares a series of meetings in 2023 in which he brings up killing Hamas leadership, but was opposed by the IDF and Shin Bet.