Report: PM’s chief of staff says he corrected time on transcript from Oct. 7 but didn’t change anything else

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff Tzachi Braverman told the police yesterday that while he did change the time on the transcript of a phone call to the prime minister in the first moments of the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught, he only did so because he knew for a fact that it was incorrect, Channel 12 reports.

Braverman is suspected of having altered the stated time at which Netanyahu first received an update on the October 7 Hamas invasion via phone call from his military secretary at the time, Maj. Gen. Avi Gil, allegedly changing it from 6:40 a.m. to 6:29 a.m.

He was questioned by the Israel Police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit for over five hours on Thursday and denied making any changes to the transcript besides altering the time.

“I know that the first call was received at 6:29 a.m., that’s why I insisted on changing it,” he reportedly told the police during the interrogation.

According to the Haaretz daily, while Gil had phoned Netanyahu at 6:29 a.m., as the Hamas attack began, Netanyahu did not give any instructions, telling him instead to phone again in ten minutes, at 6:40 a.m.

It was only during the second phone call — which Braverman allegedly altered to appear as though it was the first — that Netanyahu ordered Gil to hold a situational assessment regarding the developing Hamas invasion in southern Israel, Haaretz stated.

Braverman was also questioned about allegations that he asked various PMO officials to provide him with transcripts of security meetings held by the Bennett-Lapid government in 2021, as well as transcripts of meetings held by Netanyahu during his previous terms in office.

He reportedly told the police that he had asked for the documents as it is his job “to review government meetings and security talks.” He insisted that he had not made any changes to the protocols, and returned them “as soon as the Attorney General issued a letter that the protocols should be returned and that they should not be removed from where they are kept.”

According to the report, Braverman’s release at the end of the five-hour interrogation hinges on the condition that he does not contact any other suspects involved in the case.