Outgoing state comptroller says military officials asked him to drop blame sections from Oct. 7 reports

Outgoing State Comptroller and Public Complaints Commissioner Matanyahu Englman accused senior military figures on Wednesday of trying to strip responsibility chapters from his office’s reports on the October 7 attacks. He made the remarks in a conversation with journalist Yanir Cozin on the second day of the local government conference, Muni Expo, in Tel Aviv.

Englman said his office has already published nearly 50 audits on the war and the October 7 events, and another batch is expected next week, including a report on the evacuation of the wounded. He said the long-delayed Nova festival report is especially serious and important for drawing lessons, and added that eight more reports are currently frozen under a High Court decision, four of them draft reports sent out last July.

Among the suspended reports, he said, is one on the licensing and security of the Re'im festival, where close to 400 people were killed and others abducted. Englman said the frozen material, which he said took “close to 100 man-years” to prepare, covers the intelligence failure, the breach in the fence, the evacuation of bodies and the protection of southern communities. He argued that the public deserves answers and that responsibility must remain part of the findings.

He sharply criticized the petitioners behind the court case, naming the military public defender, the Movement for Quality Government and former chiefs of staff among them. “Who is afraid of the truth? And who is afraid of taking responsibility?” he asked. Englman said some petitioners met him and proposed that he remove the responsibility chapter and publish the reports anyway, but he refused. He said he owes his duty to Israeli citizens, and insisted the word “responsibility” must not disappear from public discourse. He also argued that although the IDF has published various inquiries, the responsibility of senior commanders, and specifically the General Staff, has not yet been properly addressed.