Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing fresh criticism over security failures surrounding the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, as the country prepares for elections expected in late October.
The assault, which killed 1,139 Israelis and saw about 250 people taken hostage, continues to dominate political debate three years later. Opposition figures are pressing for greater accountability from the political leadership.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett has accused Netanyahu of ignoring warnings about Hamas, relying on a policy that assumed the group had been deterred, and failing to prepare adequately for an attack.
Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, a leading opposition candidate, has made an independent inquiry into the October 7 failures a central plank of his campaign.
Netanyahu has rejected claims that his government bears primary responsibility. He has instead accused senior defence officials of deliberately failing to wake him after suspicious activity was detected in Gaza.
“They knew that, as prime minister of Israel, I would have immediately given the order to put the entire military on alert,” Netanyahu said, arguing he could have prevented the attack had he been informed earlier.
His wife, Sara Netanyahu, has also questioned how opposition politician Yair Golan responded on the day, suggesting his actions indicated prior knowledge of the assault.
Israeli academic Neve Gordon of Queen Mary University of London described such statements as part of a broader conspiracy narrative.
“Sara and Benjamin Netanyahu are just adding to the conspiracies that are already out in the public arena,” Gordon said, adding that the claims could confuse voters while consolidating Netanyahu’s base ahead of the vote.
Sociology professor Lev Grinberg of Ben Gurion University said the attack was quickly framed as a new Holocaust in Israeli discourse, while the military response in Gaza was presented as legitimate.
“The October 7 massacre was immediately interpreted as a new Holocaust, and the criminal genocidal reaction was interpreted as legitimate, without recognition of the suffering of innocent people,” Grinberg said.
Media analyst Ayala Panievsky noted that October 7 remains a defining trauma for many Israelis.
“For most Israelis, [October 7 is] the worst in the country’s history … haunting public opinion and Israelis’ very basic sense of safety,” she said.
She added that while the attack is expected to feature heavily in the election campaign, the consequences of the subsequent war in Gaza have received far less attention inside Israel.
“The fact that these elections will be about October 7 is not surprising really. The problem is that, to this day, none of the horrors that followed in Gaza penetrated the public conversation in Israel,” Panievsky said.
