A committee of legal and security experts that will lead a civilian probe into the events of October 7 was announced Thursday by families of those killed on October 7, representatives from Kibbutzim that were attacked, and civil society groups.

The civilian inquiry committee will investigate the “events before October 7, which formed the foundation for the biggest security failure in the state’s history” and examine the failures of the military and political systems, it said.  

The civilian committee said it would investigate until a national committee is formed. It created the committee because no such state committee exists.

Just as civilians stepped in on October 7, the army and state were not there; they are stepping in to fill the need for a committee not met by the state, said a committee representative.

One of the primary goals of the civilian committee is to bring about the founding of a state committee, said committee member Maj.-Gen. (res.) Eyal Ben-Reuven.

Brother of slain hostage Alon Shamriz, Yonatan Shamriz at the announcement of a civilian probe of October 7 (credit: Israeli People’s Committee)

The announcement came one day after Israel’s coalition struck down a bill to fund a national investigation of the events leading up to October 7. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated an argument in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday that an inquiry before the war is over would hamper Israel’s ability to defeat Hamas.

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Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said late last week that a state investigation is necessary. “This commission of inquiry should be objective; it should check all of us – the government, the army, and the security agencies. It needs to check me along with the prime minister and chief of staff,” Gallant said.

The High Court Chief Justice appoints a National Committee of Investigation and operates independently of the political echelon. In the past years, Netanyahu refrained from forming them over several issues, including the 2021 Meron disaster in which 45 men were crushed to death.  

Committee head Judge Emeritus Gideon Ginat, who has served on the district courts in Tel Aviv, Nazareth, Jerusalem, and Haifa, said an inquiry is necessary as soon as possible.

Ben-Reuven, who has worked in Israel Aerospace Industries and security consulting since retiring from the IDF, echoed this sentiment, saying that the facts will naturally blur over time.

Kibbutz Beeri representative Alon Pauker welcomed the IDF probe into what happened at Beeri on October 7 but said that it addressed a micro question. The more macro questions of who is responsible for October 7, the state’s response must also be addressed.

He also touched on the need to form a committee immediately, saying that it is necessary to examine ongoing failings.

“As we have learned since October 7, when the state is not there, civilians are called to the flag,” he said. “If the government doesn’t want to investigate, we will investigate.”

A national probe of the Yom Kippur war began less than a month after the outbreak of the war, said Yonatan Shamriz, brother of Alon Shamriz, who was taken captive and killed along with two other hostages in Gaza by IDF forces when he escaped his Hamas captors.

Shamriz alluded to possible political motivations preventing the founding of a state inquiry, saying that a committee’s foundation would be brave and that brave leaders make brave choices even if they might hurt their careers.

Hila Abir, a representative of the families of those murdered at parties in Israel’s south on the 7th, called on Israel’s leadership not to make scapegoats out of the fighters in the field on the day of the massacre.

She added that the IDF probes are focused on how forces acted on the scene that day rather than on why forces didn’t make it to many attack sites.

Eyal Eshel, father of slain IDF observer Roni Eshel, wondered how he could let his daughter Yael join the IDF in three months when he had zero trust in the army or the state.

He asked how Israel’s political and senior military echelon are not ashamed and how it could be that they have not taken responsibility for failings leading up to and on October 7, hoped that at least some of the leadership was ashamed that civilians were taking over the probe following the state’s failure to investigate. “The least of what we deserve are answers,” he said.

Additional committee members include Professor Asa Kasher, lead author of the IDF’s code of ethics; Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yehudit Grisaro; former Beit She’an mayor and intelligence officer Rafi Ben-Sheetrit; and former Police Commissioner Shlomo Aharonishki.

The committee will convene thrice weekly and work for as long as necessary. However, they hope to present their findings by the year’s mark of October 7. They called on the public to submit their testimony to the committee, urging anyone with information to contact them via email or WhatsApp.

You can submit testimony to the committee using their email: havaada7.10@gmail.com

Eliav Breuer and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.