“I give my full support to all heads of security departments,” Netanyahu said.
Jerusalem:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pitched on the platform on Sunday
The comments, which occurred at 1am on Sunday (around 11pm GMT on Saturday), referred to as a ‘shooting spree through southern Israel.
While top officials – from the heads of the military and the domestic spy agency Shin Bet to his finance minister – have all admitted their failures, Netanyahu has not.
He just said that after the war there would be time to ask difficult questions, including of himself.
Israel’s military spokesman, asked about Netanyahu’s comments during a daily briefing with reporters, declined to answer, saying: “We are now at war and focused on war.”
Israeli officials said the events leading up to and including the handling of the Hamas attack itself were being investigated, but the focus was currently on the conflict.
Netanyahu’s now-deleted post said: “At no time or at any stage was Prime Minister Netanyahu warned of Hamas’s war intentions. On the contrary, all security officials, including the head of army intelligence and the head of the Shin Bet, estimated that Hamas was deterred and interested in an agreement.”
In a second post
“I give my full support to all heads of security departments,” he said.
Netanyahu’s initial comments were immediately rejected by current and former allies, including Benny Gantz, a former defense minister who now sits in Netanyahu’s war cabinet.
Gantz said on X that Netanyahu should retract his statement and let the matter rest.
“When we are at war, leadership must show responsibility, decide to do the right things and strengthen the armed forces so that they can implement what we ask of them,” Gantz said.
Hamas’ well-planned surprise attack was the deadliest for Israel in its 75-year history. Since then, Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip with devastating airstrikes and begun ground operations aimed at toppling the Iran-backed Islamist group and securing the release of scores of people abducted from Israel into Gaza on October 7.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid, who was a former prime minister, said Netanyahu had “crossed a red line” with the night post.
“Attempting to evade responsibility and shift blame onto the security establishment weakens the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) as it fights against Israel’s enemies,” he said.
Yossi Cohen, who headed the Mossad spy agency under previous Netanyahu governments, told Israel Radio: “You take responsibility from the beginning, not from the middle.”
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