Police launch internal probe into its actions during Oct. 7 assault, nearly two years later

Police have quietly launched an internal probe assessing law enforcement’s response to the October 7, 2023, assault, some 22 months after it occurred, the Walla news outlet reports.

The report cites an internal letter sent last month by Israel Police chief Danny Levy to officers and retirees in the force, announcing the probe and requesting their participation.

The letter stresses that the probes will not place blame on individual officers and will draw only “operational and organizational conclusions,” signaling a similar approach to that of the IDF, whose probes also skirt questions of personal responsibility.

“There will be no personal conclusions. All findings and conclusions that are formulated will be translated solely into operational and organizational conclusions, which will be used for effective organizational learning and strengthening emergency preparedness,” reads Levy’s letter obtained yesterday by Walla.

After Levy announced the formation of a special team to investigate law enforcement’s conduct on October 7 earlier this year, police have kept most details of the investigation under wraps.

According to several Hebrew reports, the current probe is being overseen by former Deputy Commissioner David Bitan, who served for a period as the commander in the force’s Southern District and retired before October 7.

A previous investigation carried out under former police chief Kobi Shabtai largely heaped blame on the IDF for failing to update police with intelligence or signs indicating an impending attack. But the lack of coordination within law enforcement also seemed to have hampered security forces’ response that morning.

The Haaretz newspaper reported in March that senior officers in the Southern District had been unaware that members of the police’s elite counterterrorism unit were deployed to the Gaza border overnight ahead of the attack, after receiving warnings from the Shin Bet.

Under Levy’s leadership, police have already conducted one probe into the fighting that took place in Kibbutz Be’eri the morning of Hamas’s invasion. The main findings were presented to the bereaved families of the eight officers slain that day.