Government Demands Investigation Be Put on
Hold until Military Operations in Gaza End
Kyle Anzalone / Antiwar.com

(January 5, 2024) — Tensions between the Israeli military and several Israeli politicians boiled over during a war cabinet meeting about an investigation into the October 7 Hamas attack. The government led by Benjamin Netanyahu has deflected blame for the Hamas intrusion in southern Israel. Several reports have produced evidence that Tel Aviv should have been able to prevent the attack.

During the war cabinet meeting, the Israeli military announced plans to conduct an official inquiry into the October 7 Hamas attack. The Financial Times reports, “One Israeli official confirmed that [the Israeli military representative] was attacked by several senior ministers over both the timing and make-up of the probe.”

Benny Gantz, a cabinet minister and member of the National Unity party, said the probe was “a politically motivated attack in the middle of a war. I participated in many cabinet meetings — such conduct has never occurred and must not occur.”

The Financial Times report continues, “The argument was sparked, according to the official, by transport minister Miri Regev, a politician from Netanyahu’s Likud party who is seen as an ally of the prime minister.”

“Regev’s intervention was followed by far-right ministers such as Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister.”

Smotrich, an extremist settler who called for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, explained there had been a “heated discussion” in the cabinet meeting about the timing of the probe. The investigation follows a lawsuit by survivors of the Nova Music Festival, who claim the Israeli government failed in their duty.

The lawsuit says, “A single phone call by [Israeli military] to the commander responsible for the party to disperse it immediately in view of the expected danger would have saved lives and prevented the physical and mental injuries of hundreds of partygoers, including the plaintiffs.”

The Israeli government ignored warnings years, months, and days before October 7. According to theNew York Times, Tel Aviv received a detailed copy of the battle plans used by Hamas. “Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack more than a year before it happened, documents, emails and interviews show,” the report says. “But Israeli military and intelligence officials dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out.”

Haaretz notes that in the months leading up to the attack, the Israeli intelligence community received a report from a source inside that Hamas was gearing up for the assault on southern Israel. The outlet additionally reports that the day before the attack, the Israeli military had enough details about the attack to begin to prepare and warn the Nova concertgoers.

Netanyahu has refused to accept responsibility for the attack and claims that an investigation is inappropriate while the war in Gaza is ongoing. Throughout his decades as Israeli Prime Minister, Netanyahu has supported Hamas in order to prevent negotiations on a two-state solution.

Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.