State comptroller hits back at IDF chief over criticism of probe into Oct. 7 failures
Matanyahu Englman says no reason investigation can’t go ahead, since it doesn’t require attention of combat ranks; calls on military to cooperate with document requests
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman pushed back on Thursday against the IDF chief of staff’s resistance to his office opening a probe into the military failures surrounding Hamas’s October 7 massacre as the war continues to rage.
IDF chief Herzi Halevi raised objections to the state comptroller on Wednesday, telling Englman that his examination was both unprecedented and would divert the attention of IDF commanders currently conducting operations in Gaza, and asked him to delay his probe.
But in a letter to Halevi, Englman said his examination into the multi-system failures leading up to, and on, October 7 is both necessary and feasible despite the ongoing war agains Hamas.
“The severe failures that led to the events of October 7 require a deep and fundamental examination by the State Comptroller’s Office of all [decision-making] echelons, political, military and civilian,” Englman told Halevi.
Englman also pointed out that he has already begun examinations and even issued criticism of governmental failings on the home front since the beginning of the war, seemingly to ward off claims that his examination into military failures is politically motivated to deflect blame from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Englman added that his office has told the IDF that at present all it requires is access to military documents to begin preparations for the examination, and said that other security agencies involved in the war have already complied with a similar request.
“There is no reason at all that similar cooperation, which it should be emphasized does not require the attention of the combat ranks, should not also be established for the IDF,” Englman wrote.
Earlier Thursday, it was reported that Halevi had frozen the formation of his outside investigative team to examine the army’s operational failures in the lead-up to October 7, following intense criticism from right-wing ministers and lawmakers, who were concerned the panel could also assign blame to politicians.
The probe, announced earlier this month, was meant to draw operational conclusions for the military, and not to look into the policies of the political leadership.
Panning the state comptroller’s probe, Halevi told Englman on Wednesday: “There is no precedent for holding such a review during the war,” and requested that the start date of the audit “be determined in a way that will enable the IDF to devote the proper attention and resources.”
In a separate critique last week, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel sent a letter to Englman expressing concern about his request for classified documents from the IDF and the security agencies, and not from political and decision-making agencies and officials, and said his activities could harm a future state commission of inquiry into the October 7 failures.
In December, Englman said his office would “leave no stone unturned” in its investigation.
Englman said his office will look into all aspects of the “multi-system failures,” including examining those with “personal responsibility” for the “failures on all levels — policy, military and civilian.” The probe will make up the lion’s share of the agency’s activities over 2024, he said, indicating that it will supersede quarterly reports on other aspects of the state’s functioning.
Among the issues to be reviewed by the comptroller’s office were the conduct of the government’s security cabinet; the conduct of policymakers and the military on October 7 itself; intelligence preparedness before October 7; the defense posture on the Gaza border before the Hamas invasion; the preparedness of the civilian security squads in the Gaza border region before the war; the funding of Hamas; and the lack of equipment for IDF soldiers, he said.
His office was also set to study the government’s actions following the outbreak of war, including how civilians from the south and north were relocated; the evacuation of the injured and the collection and identification of the bodies of the victims; the rights of those harmed in the attack and their ability to access those rights; and the government’s public diplomacy activities.
Thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel on October 7, carrying out a murderous rampage of unprecedented intensity and breadth. In the hours before the IDF could mount a response, some 1,200 people were killed and 253 people were kidnapped, many of whom remain hostage in Gaza.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
