The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected calls for an immediate independent inquiry into the security failures that allowed the deadliest attack in his country’s history.
The meeting marks the highest-level acknowledgment of the Israeli military’s failure to listen to the lookout unit in Nahal Oz, where dozens of soldiers were killed and others taken hostage on the 7 October, part of a unprecedented attack by Hamas and other militants on towns and kibbutzim around the Gaza Strip.
Last week, a leading member of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency known only by the initial “Aleph” resigned, reportedly saying in his farewell speech he was leaving amid deep disappointment that his department had failed to avert the attack.
The Israel Defense Forces’ intelligence chief, Maj Gen Aharon Haliva, resigned in April, making him the highest-ranking official to step down over the attack.
Despite protests calling on him to resign, as well as demands from a wide spectrum of Israeli society that he apologise for the security failures of 7 October, Netanyahu has strenuously resisted.
“The prime minister has been very forthright about the failures that led to 7 October,” said David Mencer, a spokesperson for Netanyahu, when asked why the PM had declined to apologise.
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