Report: PM’s office recruited reservists to sort through minutes of pre-Oct. 7 security meetings without knowledge of IDF chief

The Prime Minister’s Office recruited reserve soldiers from the IDF’s intelligence unit last year to obtain the protocols of various security meetings held in the run-up to and the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, the Haaretz newspaper reports.

According to the report, the soldiers were recruited in May and June 2024 by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military secretary, Roman Gofman, and without the knowledge of then-IDF chief Herzi Halevi.

The report comes days after the premier published a 55-page document with select quotations from cabinet meetings in the years leading up to October 7, which painted a picture in which Netanyahu ostensibly pushed for aggressive policies against Hamas, while his current political rivals and security chiefs urged long-term deals with the terror group and blocked the assassinations of its leaders.

According to Haaretz, the reserve soldiers were kept in the dark about the purpose of their task, and questioned whether sorting through the minutes of security meetings was beneficial for the army, but did not raise any concerns with their commanders.

Once the relevant protocols had been obtained, Gofman shared them with Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs, who then handed them over to Netanyahu, Haaretz reports.

The IDF says in response to the report that the reservists “were assigned to and carried out professional and operational tasks as part of the military secretariat’s routine activities.”