Civilian Inquiry October 7 to Include Survivor and IDF Testimony

More than 600 requests for testimony, including dozens of requests from IDF reservists and career soldiers, have been submitted to the Oct. 7 civilian inquiry, the commission leading the inquiry announced Sunday. The requests came in just three days after the commission was announced.

Dozens of investigators will hear testimony from the public over the next week and the commission will begin discussing the information the following week, they added.

The committee, announced last Thursday, is made up of security and justice experts. It will investigate the “events before October 7, which laid the foundation for the biggest security failure in the history of the state” and examine the failures of the military and political systems, the committee said.

The citizens’ committee said it would investigate until a national committee was formed. However, the committee was formed because there was no such state committee.

“Where the government does not take action, citizens will take action,” said Gideon Ginat, chairman of the committee.

Palestinians react as an Israeli military vehicle is set on fire after it was hit by Palestinian gunmen who infiltrated areas in southern Israel, on the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border, October 7, 2023. (Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa)

“The State of Israel has always drawn strength from its ability to learn quickly, draw conclusions and rise to challenges. The embrace the committee receives from the public is an unwavering confirmation of the importance of the Citizens’ Investigative Committee,” he said.

Debates on the need for an investigation

Ginat called on security officials, Gaza residents, government officials and anyone with information to come forward.

The committee’s announcement came a day after Israel’s coalition rejected a bill to fund a national investigation into the events leading up to Oct. 7. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated an argument in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday that an investigation before the end of the war would hinder Israel’s ability to defeat Hamas.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said earlier this month that a state investigation is necessary. “This investigation committee must be objective; it must check all of us – the government, the army and the security services. It must check me, along with the prime minister and the chief of staff,” he said.

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court appoints a National Investigative Committee and operates independently of the political elite. In recent years, Netanyahu has refrained from forming such a committee over several issues, including the 2021 Meron disaster that killed 45 men.

Eliav Breuer and staff at The Jerusalem Post contributed to this report.

Debates on the need for an investigation

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