Israeli Citizens Demand Accountability Three Years After October 7 Attacks

For years, Netanyahu pursued a strategy of containment rather than confrontation with Hamas in Gaza, permitting successive Israeli administrations to authorize Qatar’s transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the enclave.

A month after the October 7 attacks, he told a German newspaper that accusations he sought to bolster Hamas were ‘an outright lie’.

“On the contrary, our aim was to continue weakening Hamas as much as possible,” he told Die Welt. “The funds were intended solely to avert a humanitarian crisis.”

Months after the attack, then-IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi publicly apologized for the failure to protect civilians, saying he bore that burden both professionally and personally.

He resigned shortly afterward, and a series of military commanders were subsequently dismissed, while the head of Israel’s domestic intelligence agency also stepped down.

Netanyahu has consistently declined to accept personal responsibility for the attacks.

Colonel Richard Hecht, who served as the IDF’s international spokesperson on October 7, said that the reluctance of political leaders—including Netanyahu—to acknowledge responsibility contributed to his decision to resign six months later.

“It’s a disgrace,” he told me. “When examining accountability, I don’t see an issue within the IDF. That tension is painful and represents a primary source of friction between the political leadership and the military.”

At a memorial ceremony in Jerusalem on Monday, the father of a victim of the October 7 attacks rose to confront the prime minister.

“You failed to protect my son, and you failed to protect all those who were murdered,” he said before security personnel escorted him away. “Shame! Disgrace!”

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