Netanyahu's 7/10 Document Accused of Distorting Facts

A report by "7 Layam" (Seven Days) alleges that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 55-page document, released in February to explain the events leading up to the October 7th Hamas attack, contains numerous distortions, manipulations, and outright falsehoods. The document, titled "Prime Minister's Response to State Comptroller's Questions," aims to portray Netanyahu as unaware of the impending danger, misled by security officials, and thwarted in his attempts to act decisively.

The report specifically challenges Netanyahu's account of the targeted killing of Hamas operative Nuer Baraka in November 2018. Netanyahu's document claims this was a deliberate assassination ordered by him, intended to showcase his proactive stance. However, the report states Baraka was killed incidentally during a botched covert operation in Khan Younis that turned into a rescue mission, resulting in the death of an Israeli officer. The IDF spokesperson at the time clarified the operation's objective was not assassination.

Furthermore, the report disputes Netanyahu's assertion that he never issued directives for "containment" or "quiet" with Hamas, policies often associated with Qatari funding for relative calm. It cites cabinet discussions and National Security Council directives from 2014, 2019, and 2020, which explicitly mention maintaining "quiet" and "calm" as policy goals, and even preserving Hamas as a governing entity. Netanyahu's own office, in a document submitted to the State Comptroller in April 2024, reportedly admits that policy directives from the political echelon, including Netanyahu's, led to the avoidance of Hamas's defeat and encouraged seeking "alternatives to defeat."

The report also refutes Netanyahu's claim of never being informed about Hamas's "Jericho Wall" attack plan. It asserts that versions of this plan, detailing a large-scale, synchronized attack involving thousands of fighters, were presented to Netanyahu multiple times since 2018, including in a presentation at the Southern Command in November 2022, which explicitly named the "Jericho Wall" scenario. Netanyahu's document, according to the report, selectively quotes intelligence assessments to downplay the threat, omitting crucial details about Hamas's capabilities and intentions.

Additionally, the report challenges Netanyahu's portrayal of security officials as having downplayed Hamas's threat while he advocated for action. It suggests that Netanyahu himself repeatedly prioritized "quiet" and "calm" over potential military action, even rejecting proposals for targeted assassinations of senior Hamas officials due to concerns about escalation and its impact on normalization talks with Saudi Arabia. The report concludes that Netanyahu's document, rather than presenting the "truth" as he claims, distorts facts to absolve himself of responsibility for the failures preceding October 7th.