Report: Alerted to Hamas onslaught, Netanyahu took 2 hours to leave home, didn’t speak to IDF chief for 3

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took at least two hours to leave his Caesarea home and head to the IDF’s Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv after being told immediately that Hamas-led terrorists were attacking Israel at 6.29 on the morning of October 7, 2023, according to an Israeli television report on Friday.

He did not contact the IDF chief-of-staff Herzi Halevi or Shin Bet head Ronen Bar in that time, or en route to the Kirya, the TV report further said, asserting an inexplicably sluggish and limited initial response by Netanyahu to the Hamas onslaught. According to his own published schedule, the prime minister only ordered the Gaza border closed and a full IDF mobilization at 9.55 a.m.

Earlier this week, Netanyahu denounced Israel’s security chiefs for purportedly choosing not to wake him in the hours before the attack when, he said, “all the signs were there” that Hamas was about to invade, and claimed he would have immediately mobilized the IDF and taken other steps necessary to ensure that October 7 “would not have taken place.” Those security chiefs have repeatedly stressed they did not assess that Hamas was about to invade, but did send an IDF memo detailing suspicious Hamas activity to Netanyahu’s intelligence officer three hours before the invasion.

On Thursday, Netanyahu’s office published what it claims were the minutes from the premier’s schedule from that day. Those minutes showed that Netanyahu, alerted at 6:29 a.m. to the Hamas invasion, did not leave his home until 7:30 a.m. because it took time to prepare his convoy. The minutes then stated that the premier arrived at the Kirya at 8 a.m., though they also noted that the Shin Bet’s minutes documented the arrival time as having been 8:22 a.m.

However, Channel 12 news reported that unpublished minutes from the prime minister’s office diary placed his actual time of arrival at the Kirya as 9 a.m., while a “credible source” told the network that his true arrival time was not until 9:30 a.m.

This would mean that Netanyahu did not leave his house until 8:30 or 9 a.m., while thousands of Hamas terrorists invading from Gaza were rampaging through Israeli border communities.

Netanyahu also declared this week that had the security chiefs woken him up in the middle of the night to share the indications they were receiving about a potential Hamas invasion, which they did not believe was about to happen, he would have “immediately” mobilized the IDF and the Air Force.

In fact, Channel 12 said, after he was woken up by his military secretary at 6:29 a.m., Netanyahu did not phone Halevi or Bar and did not speak to them until he arrived at the Kirya over two hours later.

Netanyahu did not hold his first situational assessment at military headquarters until 9:55 a.m., according to the minutes released this week by his office. Only then, according to his office, did the prime minister order a full IDF mobilization and give orders “that the border line be hermetically sealed to prevent hostages from being taken to Gaza and to prevent the continued entry of terrorists.”

About an hour after the situational assessment, the premier released a video filmed at the Kirya declaring that “we are at war.”

The IDF’s own investigations have shown that the IDF’s Operations Directorate ordered a “transition to war” and a reservist mobilization at around 8 a.m., two hours before Netanyahu’s directive. As for closing the border, the IDF was incapable of doing so for hours, its investigations showed, with the IDF’s Gaza division overrun and 767 troops facing some 5,000 terrorists.

Netanyahu has blocked efforts to establish a state commission of inquiry into October 7, which would strive to determine the fullest picture of what exactly played out before, during and after the Hamas assault, recommend procedures to ensure no recurrence, and issue personal recommendations regarding culpability for the failures.

Channel 12 also revealed that then-defense minister Yoav Gallant arrived at the Kirya at 7:30 a.m., one hour after being alerted to the Hamas invasion.

Gallant lives in the town of Amikam, 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Kirya, while Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea is 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) closer to the military HQ.

The television report came a day after the Kan public broadcaster first revealed that Netanyahu did not speak with then IDF chief Halevi for some three hours after waking up, and the PMO’s office confirmed this, prompting criticism of the premier from opposition figures and a group representing October 7 survivors, bereaved families and former hostages. Halevi’s own diary confirms he first met that day with Netanyahu at 9.45 a.m.

“Precisely on account of these three hours we must establish a state commission of inquiry,” said the October Council. “Not a commission that Netanyahu will appoint, not an investigation that he will rule over, but a state commission that will investigate, minute by minute: who knew, who called, who gave instructions, who didn’t, and most of all: why, while our loved ones were still alive, the state wasn’t there to save them.”

A state commission of inquiry is Israel’s highest investigative authority, with unique power to investigate national disasters, subpoena witnesses and issue personal recommendations that can end political careers. It is established by government decision, but acts independently of it, and comprises experts selected by the judiciary.

Netanyahu has adamantly opposed forming one because its members would be selected by the president of the Supreme Court, which he claims is biased against him. He has indeed backed a political probe, appointed and mandated by the coalition and opposition. Since the opposition has rejected this, the legislation he sought but failed to pass in the outgoing Knesset, and intends to pass if reelected, would enable his coalition to appoint and mandate an inquiry into its own conduct.