Opposition MKs: Be’eri findings confirm need for state inquiry into Oct. 7 failures
Lapid says government can no longer avoid responsibility to citizens; Liberman: Probe must start with PM and defense minister; Golan: This is ‘a drop in the ocean’
Michael Horovitz is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel
Opposition lawmakers on Thursday said the military’s newly released findings of its failures in the Kibbutz Be’eri massacre on October 7 underlined the urgent need for a state commission of inquiry into the events leading up to and on that day.
The detailed report by the Israel Defense Forces, presented to the community Thursday and later released publicly, highlighted the heroism of the local security team and other forces who participated in the fighting, but concluded that the army was woefully ill-prepared for such an enormous onslaught, and ultimately “failed in its mission to protect the residents of Kibbutz Be’eri.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said the probe, as well as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s speech earlier in the day in which he spoke of the need for a wide-ranging probe, “proves even more the need for a state commission of inquiry into the events of October 7.
“The government cannot continue to avoid its responsibility toward the citizens of Israel, the families of the fallen and families of hostages,” he wrote on X.
Yisrael Beytenu party chair Avigdor Liberman said in a statement that the Be’eri probe proved there was “no other choice except the appointment of a state commission of inquiry led by a judge,” instead of an investigation focusing on security forces “who risked their lives protecting the residents from bloodthirsty terrorists.”
“The investigation must begin with the prime minister and defense minister, the main ones responsible for the worst failure in the country’s history. The general staff also should be held responsible, especially those that determined on the eve of the war that Hamas was deterred and not interested in an escalation,” Liberman wrote.
State commissions of inquiry can be established by a government resolution or by the Knesset’s State Control Committee, and are independent panels whose members are selected by the Supreme Court president from among serving or retired Supreme Court or district court judges.
Despite calls from several opposition lawmakers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that an investigation determining the culpability of the government cannot take place while the war in Gaza is ongoing. He has also been non-committal on establishing a state commission — the investigatory body with the greatest powers — indicating that other formats may be appropriate.
Critics have accused Netanyahu of avoiding the matter for fear of how such an inquiry might reflect on his role in events.
In a challenge to Netanyahu Thursday, Gallant called for the formation of a state commission that would examine all decision-makers and their failures leading up to the massacre, including himself.
Yair Golan, head of the Democrats union of Labor and Meretz, said the Be’eri probe was “a drop in the ocean” compared to what a state commission could find.
“Our soldiers, bereaved families, and the families of hostages deserve a full and broad investigation into all the failures that led to October 7. The country needs it so that ‘never again’ doesn’t remain an empty slogan. Citizens need it to know their country is doing everything to not abandon them again,” he wrote on X.
Labor party MK Efrat Rayten wrote that the probe was a positive first step, “but without a state commission with broad investigative powers to examine the additional failures on that dark day, drawing lessons and implementing the conclusions, we will not be able to make a real and serious correction to prevent such disasters.”
Firebrand MK Tally Gotliv of the ruling Likud party slammed the probe for focusing on soldiers, charging that Israelis wanted to know where the heads of the security establishment were on October 7, and how thousands of terrorists broke through the border.
“Shame on the IDF’s top brass for publishing an investigation into the conduct of our forces, who were few in number with zero [advance] intel, against 3,000 terrorists,” she wrote.
The military has said big-picture investigations are also underway, concurrently with its dozens of investigations into each of the battles that took place that day, of which Be’eri is the first to be published. The IDF hopes to present all battle investigations by the end of August.
Be’eri was the hardest-hit community in Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, during which some 3,000 terrorists stormed across the border and massacred close to 1,200 people in their homes and at a nearby music festival in southern Israel, and took 251 hostages to Gaza.
In all, 101 civilians and 31 security personnel were killed in Be’eri — a community of around 1,000 residents — and a further 30 residents and two more civilians were taken hostage by the Hamas terrorists, 11 of whom still remain in Gaza. At least 125 homes in the community were damaged and destroyed amid the fighting.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
