State comptroller looks to question Netanyahu and ex-defense chiefs on Oct. 7 failures

State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman announced Monday that he and his team were seeking meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior political and defense officials, amid a wide-ranging probe into the failures surrounding Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.

The comptroller said in a statement that he was seeking to meet with the premier, as well as former defense minister Yoav Gallant, former IDF chiefs of staff Herzi Halevi and Aviv Kohavi, and senior Shin Bet officials, as the probe expands to include key decision-makers.

The meetings are slated to focus on key political and security failures, the statement said, including the conduct of the security cabinet, intelligence processes, and border defense in Gaza, marking a shift from investigations by security bodies that have thus far steered clear of political leaders.

“Everyone is obligated to cooperate with the probe. Attacks by parties seeking to evade scrutiny will not deter us from conducting the state comptroller’s work in the most professional manner,” Englman said in a statement from his office, announcing his intention to interview Netanyahu and others.

Officials have been sent detailed questions classified as “top secret,” and meetings were being coordinated to review the findings and ensure accountability across all levels of government, military and security services, the statement said.

Among the issues that were raised in documents already provided to Netanyahu were the “absence of a national security outlook and the central influence of the political echelon on the IDF”; the detention and eventual prosecution of security prisoners; the government’s handling of the displacement of thousands of Israelis who were evacuated from border areas; and the effect of the war on Israel’s standing internationally.

The comptroller’s probe is currently the only state-sanctioned comprehensive investigation into the October 7 attack, in which thousands of Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 to Gaza as hostages, sparking the ongoing war.

Englman’s investigation, which began in January 2024, was suspended for over a year when trying to probe the IDF and Shin Bet, due to the ongoing war and opposition from senior officials. With the appointment of IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir in March 2025, a framework for the probe was established and endorsed by the High Court of Justice in April, allowing it to proceed.

The comptroller said Monday that “the investigation has been delayed by the IDF and Shin Bet by some 15 months,” but added: “During this period, the investigation continued with respect to the political and civilian echelons.”

Netanyahu and allies of his in the government have insisted that no investigation can look at government decision-making until the war in Gaza concludes, ignoring loud calls for them to submit to a state commission of inquiry and resisting widespread calls to end the war.

Englman’s probe largely lacks the teeth of a state commission of inquiry, but he stressed in his statement that leaders must still cooperate with his inquest.

“Full availability, submission of all relevant documents, and a professional engagement with the probe findings are required. Our sole obligation is to the citizens of Israel, who deserve answers on the core failure that led to the massacre,” he said.

Some critics, including opposition members and government watchdog groups, have raised concerns that Englman, who has no legal background and was appointed under a Netanyahu-led government, may minimize political responsibility for the brutal attack.

The October Council, a group of some 1,500 family members of hostages and those killed on October 7 as well as survivors of the attack, denounced the comptroller’s probe, saying it marked an effort to “play for time, blur the facts” regarding responsibility for October 7 and “evade the truth.” It repeated its call for a state commission of inquiry.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.