Ombudsman said to tell PM: Publish Gaza war report or I’ll call for probe

In ultimatum, state comptroller reportedly warns he will back official inquiry into handling of 2014 conflict if his findings are not made public

Tamar Pileggi is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.

State Comptroller Yosef Shapira (left) shakes hands with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) in December 2012. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
State Comptroller Yosef Shapira (left) shakes hands with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) in December 2012. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

State Comptroller Yosef Shapira has reportedly warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he will recommend a commission of inquiry into the government’s handling of the 2014 war against Hamas, should the prime minister refuse to make public a report on the 50-day Gaza conflict.

According to Thursday night report on Channel 2, Shapira said any attempt by the prime minister or his associates to block the publication of the State Comptroller report — which was expected to excoriate Netanyahu and other senior defense officials over the Israeli leadership’s performance during the conflict — could result in an official inquiry.

The Prime Minister’s Office later on Thursday night rejected Shapira’s reported ultimatum, saying Netanyahu never sought to block the publication of the ombudsman’s report and wanted it to be published in full.

Leaks of the report’s contents earlier this year accused Netanyahu, then-defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, and then-IDF chief Benny Gantz of covering up information regarding the threat posed by the Hamas terror group ahead of the 2014 war.

According to media sources who reviewed the 70-page document in May, Shapira accused Netanyahu and Ya’alon of failing to provide the security cabinet with real-time updates regarding the imminent threat of war with Hamas and the capabilities of the terror group’s cross-border attack tunnels.

The prime minister and the defense minister were also said to conceal warnings from the Shin Bet security agency, which raised the potential for war with Hamas in early July 2014, according to Channel 10. The conflict, known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge, began on July 8, 2014.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows Deputy Foreign Minister of Japan maps of terror tunnels from Gaza to Israel, during his visit to Israel on July 24, 2014. (Photo credit: Haim Zach / GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows Deputy Foreign Minister of Japan maps of terror tunnels from Gaza to Israel, during his visit to Israel on July 24, 2014. (Photo credit: Haim Zach / GPO)

Members of the security cabinet were only apprised of the Shin Bet warning once the operation was underway, the report said.

Netanyahu has not publicly commented on the report, though a source close to the prime minister said earlier this year that he and Ya’alon dismissed Shapira’s findings as “not serious.”

A number of lawmakers have criticized Netanyahu for what they described as his mishandling of the conflict and for allegedly seeking to keep the war report under wraps.

The controversy over the report was revived earlier this week when Education Minister Naftali Bennett slammed Netanyahu for refusing to learn from past mistakes in the run-up to the Gaza conflict.

“Before the next conflict we are obligated to learn from the mistakes of the past and not to deny them. Drawing real conclusions is a sign of strength and self-confidence,” he wrote in a series of tweets. “Anyone who refuses to learn from the mistakes of the past is condemned to repeat them in the future.”

On Wednesday, Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid called on Shapira to publish the report “as soon as possible, because the families and the Israeli public deserve to know what happened.”

Lapid censured Netanyahu for “denying mistakes and trying to hide faults,” and said the prime minister’s approach means “we can’t learn the lessons of the operation.”

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