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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to accept personal responsibility for the Oct. 7, 2023 failures in a 55-page document submitted to the state comptroller.
He instead blamed the military establishment and previous governments while using selected quotes to portray security chiefs and political rivals as having opposed action against Hamas.
Netanyahu released the responses he submitted to State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman on Thursday, saying the document was handed over at the end of 2025.
The release coincided with a contentious five-hour session at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that sparked outrage among opposition lawmakers, several of whom left early.
The prime minister told the committee that the Oct. 7 events "were a severe intelligence failure, but not a betrayal."
Netanyahu arrived at the meeting with folders containing protocols from a decade before the massacre and read quotes from officials to argue that no one had anticipated the attack, according to KAN News.
Netanyahu sought to build his case with partial, curated quotes from cabinet protocols, repeatedly claiming he had supported assassinating Hamas leaders while senior security officials opposed the move.
Among those quoted were former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, former army chief Gadi Eisenkot and former Shin Bet head Ronen Bar. Netanyahu cited a July 2014 Cabinet meeting during an Israeli war on Gaza in which he raised the issue of occupying the enclave.
According to meeting records, then-Economy Minister Bennett was quoted as saying: "I never spoke about 'occupying Gaza.'" Netanyahu responded that the only way to disarm Gaza would be through military occupation.
The Times of Israel noted that Bennett is now Netanyahu's leading rival ahead of this year's elections, giving the prime minister a clear political incentive to portray him as opposing the dismantling of Hamas.
Netanyahu also included quotations from figures who have since become prominent critics, including former deputy army chief Eisenkot, former army chief Benny Gantz and former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, all of whom opposed occupying Gaza.
According to the records, Gantz described the move as a "strategic mistake," Eisenkot called it a "grave error," while then-Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said: "I do not recommend an invasion."
The document's release drew fierce denunciations from opposition figures, who said Netanyahu was skewing the facts. They noted warnings issued in the weeks before Oct. 7 about the risk of a multi-front escalation and that Hamas was not deterred.
One opposition Knesset member demanded access to unredacted versions of the protocols.
Netanyahu's own defense minister on Oct. 7, Likud colleague Yoav Gallant, who had publicly warned in March 2023 that the national rift over judicial overhaul posed a tangible threat to Israel's security, called the prime minister a liar.
Netanyahu told the comptroller he had repeatedly examined the option of invading Gaza in the years before Oct. 7, but that the security establishment rejected the idea, citing the prospect of a long and costly war without domestic or international legitimacy and the absence of a viable alternative to Hamas rule.
Englman has not released findings from his investigation, which the High Court of Justice ordered frozen in December 2025.
The comptroller's probe was controversial from the outset, facing claims it was severely flawed and that only a state commission of inquiry could properly investigate the disaster.
In a video statement, Netanyahu claimed it was suspicious that the court halted the comptroller's investigation only six days after their meeting on Dec. 25, 2025.
"For nearly two years, the comptroller worked with full freedom of action, without any interference whatsoever from the judicial system or from anyone else," Netanyahu said.
"But only six days after I submitted this response, the Supreme Court decided to accept the attorney general's request to immediately stop the comptroller's work—work that was intended to uncover the truth," he noted.
Netanyahu demanded the court reverse its order, asking: "Is this a coincidence? I say one simple thing — judge for yourselves."
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Since Oct. 7, 2023, numerous Israeli military, security and political figures have publicly acknowledged personal responsibility for the failures, while Netanyahu has continued to refuse any personal accountability.
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