Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late Thursday released the full 55-page document of his answers given to the state comptroller as part of the ombudsman’s investigation into the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led atrocities, pinning the failure to prevent the onslaught on political rivals and security chiefs while presenting himself in a positive light and deflecting his responsibility for the attack.

Netanyahu earlier in the day presented lawmakers on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee with materials he had previously submitted to the state comptroller from the years preceding the October 7 attack, the most devastating in Israel’s history and the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

The prime minister has the authority, subject to proper procedure and legal challenge, to release and redact such materials.

In his answers to State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman, Netanyahu sought to build the case, with partial, curated quotes from cabinet protocols, that he repeatedly pushed for assassinating Hamas leaders but security chiefs consistently argued against the idea.

His release of the documentation drew fierce denunciations from opposition figures, who said he was skewing the facts and who noted warnings they issued in the weeks leading up to October 7 of a potential multi-front conflict and that Hamas was not deterred.

One opposition member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee demanded access to the unredacted versions of the protocols referred to by the premier. And Netanyahu’s own defense minister on October 7, Likud colleague Yoav Gallant, who had publicly warned in March 2023 that the national rift over the coalition’s planned judicial overhaul had come to pose a tangible threat to Israel’s security, flatly called the prime minister a liar.

Netanyahu has served as prime minister since 2009, with the exception of 18 months in 2021-2022. He presided over a policy of encouraging Qatar to send hundreds of millions of dollars into Hamas-run Gaza, which he publicly defended as essential to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in the coastal enclave.

Englman has not released findings from his investigation, which the High Court of Justice ordered him to freeze in December. The comptroller’s probe was controversial from the get-go, facing claims that it is severely flawed, would taint evidence and the investigative process, and that only a state commission of inquiry could properly investigate the disaster.

In a video statement released in parallel to the document, Netanyahu repeated his claim that he believed it was suspicious that the court halted the comptroller’s investigation only six days after they met on December 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,” said Netanyahu.

“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 continued, demanding the court reverse its order and let Englman continue the investigation.

“Is this a coincidence? I say one simple thing — judge for yourselves.”

Netanyahu also repeated his call for a “democratic and balanced” commission of inquiry into October 7, with half its members chosen by the government and half by the opposition. Opinion polls have regularly shown a clear majority of Israelis support a state commission of inquiry, Israel’s highest investigative authority, which Netanyahu opposes because it is appointed by the judiciary, which he argues would be biased as his government is pushing to curb the courts’ powers.

The opposition has rejected Netanyahu’s bid to set up a political........

© The Times of Israel