State comptroller accuses IDF of ‘intimidating’ officers testifying in Oct. 7 probe
Englman says military is posting administrators in all interviews and recording officers’ testimony, which sends a ‘message of deterrence and intimidation’
State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman on Monday accused the military of “intimidating” senior officers giving testimony in the framework of his investigation into the multi-level failures leading up to and during the October 7 Hamas invasion, and said its conduct raised suspicions it was not fully cooperating with his probe.
In a highly critical and strongly worded letter to Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, the state comptroller said that army officials had clandestinely recorded interviews his office conducted and briefed officers as to how to answer questions, among other measures he claimed were designed to obscure the “the truth from being disclosed.”
Englman announced in December last year the launch of a broad investigation into “multi-system failures,” including examining those with “personal responsibility” for the “failures on all levels – policy, military and civilian,” but the IDF has been strongly resistant to his probe and was compelled to cooperate with the investigation by the High Court.
The comptroller’s probe into the events of October 7 is currently the only state-sanctioned comprehensive investigation into the attack, during which some 1,200 people were massacred by terrorists from Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups in southern Israel, and 251 people taken hostage.
Critics of the government, including members of the opposition and several government watchdog groups, have expressed concern that the probe by Englman, who has no legal background and was appointed to his position under a Netanyahu-led government, could seek to minimize political responsibility for the devastating October 7 onslaught.
Englman has strongly denied this and insisted that his investigation will address all aspects of the failings with equal weight.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the government in general have strongly resisted the establishment of a state commission of inquiry, claiming such a probe would be politically slanted against them since its members would be selected by the president of the Supreme Court, and contending that any probe should only take place after the war is over.
The IDF is conducting its own investigations into its failings before and during the October 7 assault, including its overall perception of the situation in Gaza and of Hamas, issues regarding intelligence and the decision-making process leading up to the attack, and the fighting after the invasion was staged.
In his letter to Halevi on Monday, the comptroller complained, however, that the military administration has taken several steps that he alleged seemed designed to thwart the efforts of his office to receive a complete picture of the events surrounding October 7
Englman highlighted five specific concerns, chief among them, he said, was the fact that a representative of the deputy IDF chief of staff’s administration is present in every interview his office conducts with senior IDF officials and “accompanies them” during the proceedings. The more sensitive the issue under discussion and the more senior the IDF officer being interviewed, the more senior the military official in the meeting is, he added.
Englman also charged the military administrator with surreptitiously recording all the interviews the state comptroller’s office conducted with IDF officials during the investigation without informing the participants, saying they continued to do so after his office became aware of the practice and despite his objections.
Englman also alleged that one of the IDF officers who was interviewed by state comptroller officials said that he had signed a non-disclosure document that limited what he could say, and that another officer indicated that he had been briefed as to how to respond during the interview.
“The IDF’s behavior sends an implicit message of deterrence and intimidation toward officers in the field and officers subordinate to the high command,” Englman told Halevi.
“This may lead to suspicions of [a lack of] full cooperation with the State Comptroller’s Office, and to thwarting the disclosure of the truth to the State Comptroller, and as a result, to extremely serious harm to state comptroller procedures,” he continued.
The state comptroller added that if the IDF does not remove the obstacles he said it has erected to his investigation he would summon witnesses to the State Comptroller’s Office through the force of the 1958 State Comptroller Law “in order to ensure that investigation processes can be conducted in the manner required.”
Englman concluded by saying that his probe into the October 7 disaster was critical for the future defense of the country and that the IDF’s cooperation was crucial to enable his office to “get to the root of the truth.”
The IDF said in response that “the IDF always acts in accordance with the law and cooperates fully and transparently with the state comptroller.”
“The State Comptroller addressed the IDF with a number of claims. The IDF is studying all of the comptroller’s claims and will respond to them in a matter-of-fact manner as soon as possible,” it said in a statement, adding that it will “continue to conduct the dialogue directly with the comptroller.”
